


Take Me Home

by stargatefan_archivist



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, Drama, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-31
Updated: 2013-12-31
Packaged: 2018-10-06 20:42:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 38,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10344177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stargatefan_archivist/pseuds/stargatefan_archivist
Summary: Daniel has a dangerous encounter with the unknown that takes Jack on a journey to places that he has never been...Sequel to ’Blood Ties’





	

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Yuma, the archivist: this work was originally archived at [Stargatefan.com](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Stargatefan.com). To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [StargateFan Archive Collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/StargateFan_Archive_Collection).

Take Me Home

##  Take Me Home 

##### Written by PhoenixE   
Comments? Write to us at ailwon@pangea.ca 

  


**Part 1**

Jack reached down with his right hand and tightened his fingers around the butt of his holstered side arm for what must have been the fiftieth time in the last ten minutes. Just made him feel better to know that it was there. 

This place was severely creeping him out. They were standing in the enormous central chamber of the largest of a complex of deserted buildings they had just spent the last hour jogging down from the Stargate to reach on the spectacularly wild and seemingly uninhabited world of P8V-201. It had been a bit of a longshot to come here. The hilltop complex had looked fairly advanced and intriguingly anachronistic being that the rest of the world seemed to be conspicuously devoid of people, but the UAV telemetry readings hadn't rendered a lot of information that would tell them if anything remained in the structures that would make the trip worth their while. 

So it was pretty much six of one, half a dozen of the other, in deciding to make the trip. Normally he didn't like to venture this far off the gate itself, but in the end, it was the fact that they would have had to take a little cross-country jaunt to get to their destination that had been the deciding factor for him. It had been his call in the end, and he had made it with a comment that for some reason seemed to have made Carter a little mad at him. He hadn't the slightest idea what he had said, but it had been something all right. 

Hey - he had been married before. He was very well acquainted with - 'the look'. 

Well, for crying out loud all he had said is that the walk probably would do the team good he'd been noticing that they'd all been getting a little - soft lately. Too much down time due to injuries. Yeah, it probably was high time they took a little by-the-right-on-the-double stroll through the trees with some nice heavy packs... 

Oh wait, there had been something else. Something about well it couldn't hurt to tighten up the old glutes a bit, eh Captain? 

Ya know, upon reflection, that probably had not been a particularly smart thing for him to have said to Sam. 

It was only once in the proverbial blue moon that she went and pulled gender on him, and when she did he really was completely unprepared for it. 

She was such a competent officer and such an integral part of SG-1 that he tended to forget at times that she was a woman. Well - not that she was a _woman_ , that was kinda hard to miss - what he meant is that most of the time she made it really easy to forget that she was, well - _female_. Because most of the time she didn't act like she was, she... made sense.... 

Jack realized that he was just digging the hole deeper and decided to mentally move on. Carter and her dorsal sensibilities were put on the back burner for the moment. He brought his thoughts back to the place were he was currently standing and exactly what it was about it that kept making him go back and reach for his gun every 30 seconds or so. 

They were standing in a huge room that for all the world looked as if it was a set for a Frankenstein movie. Any minute now, he was expecting some white-coated, wild-haired and equally wild-eyed mad scientist-type to come popping out from behind one of the tables yelling "It's ALIVE!" 

He was keeping closer to the exit than usual, just in case... 

Jack willed the hair on the back of his neck to lie back down as he scanned around the room. It looked a little worse for the wear. What had obviously at some point in the past been some sort of laboratory, and a pretty advanced one at that if the remains of the equipment were anything to go by, was now mostly a shot up, smashed up and looted shambles. There were pieces of wrecked equipment and machinery strewn all over the place, along with broken glass, twisted wire, a plethora of strange metallic instruments and implements and a of a bunch of - what could only be called specimens. Or rather, what was left of them. Which wasn't a whole lot but bones and dust and a few other various assorted and sundry organic remnants he didn't even want to take a shot at trying to identify. 

There had been way too many of those sad little piles of what had once been a living being. A whole lot of death had happened here. Maybe it had been many hundreds of years since these - creatures - had expired, but the place still felt... haunted. It even still smelled like death and something more than slightly unholy... 

What was THIS now - his poetic phase? Jack massaged the back of his neck with the hand that was not wrapped around the butt of his pistol. Ready to go now.... Any time... 

What they had walked through to get this far had more than told the story of the original function of this facility. Or so Carter had speculated, as they had done the tour. The complex was built in a circular shape, with the place they were standing now as the hub. Radiating from it were 'spokes' - corridor after corridor of cages and holding pens of various sizes and obviously intended to house living specimens from diverse worlds who had required many different kinds of living conditions. 

From the holding pens, the remains and the nature of the equipment in the 'lab' it hadn't taken a rocket scientist, even though they handily happened to have one with them, to figure out that this had been some sort of a biological test facility. What wasn't so easy to gather from what little remained of the lab and the aforementioned equipment was what had been the exact nature of the work that had been done here. There wasn't much left of any of it now, however. Only the remains of the poor things that had once been cooped up here. Someone or something had come in here, Carter figured about five hundred years or so ago, and had shot the place up pretty good. The signs of a rather titanic struggle were plainly read in the gaping blast marks that literally peppered the place and the general, grim thoroughness of the systematic destruction of the equipment and facilities. 

Somebody had come in here pretty pissed and they had not left without actively expressing a fair amount of their displeasure... 

Well, didn't the psychological types always advocate release as the best form of therapy? 

Up ahead of him, Carter definitely perked up. Appeared she had found something interesting, and was making for it, Teal'c in her wake. Well, along with the guy that happened to be standing under his hat at the moment, that accounted for three quarters of the team. Where was the usually annoyingly-distant fourth? 

Movement out of the corner of his eye. Ah, there he was, the ever-errant, ever-curious Daniel, poking around in the debris in the corner, probably after something shiny that had caught his eye. Jack shook his head fondly at the sight, feeling a little easier in his mind for this rare moment of knowing, for once, exactly where Daniel was... 

"Sir?" He swiveled around in response to the sound of Sam's voice. 

"Whatcha got for us there, Captain?" 

"Not sure sir, but it seems to be a computer console of some kind. Very low power, but it does appear to be functioning. Teal'c can you - what does this mean?" 

Carter and Teal'c were fussing over their new discovery, Jack felt himself starting to fidget more than a bit and come to think of it, when he turned around to take a better look at him, so was Daniel. 

Something about the way Daniel was acting tweaked Jack's radar. After all this time and so many missions he probably knew how the kid moved and what his usual behavior patterns were almost as well as he knew his own. He'd seen Daniel in as many different situations as there were drops of water in the ocean, watched him engage in all sorts of behavior for an equally diverse number of reasons, but this was weird. This was new. 

Daniel was - twitching. Like there was something wrong with his left side. A head tic that would go off every couple of seconds, snapping his head to the left. There! The shoulder twitched. He moved on, seemingly oblivious to Jack's scrutiny, unconsciously brushing away at his ear with his left hand as if there was something buzzing around it that he was trying to drive away. 

Jack was about to go over and see what the hell was going on with his friend when Sam hailed him. 

"Colonel, I think we have something here." 

Crap. Timing, always timing. Jack, the man who was Daniel's friend, knew as surely as he had ever known anything that he needed to go to see what was happening with his friend, and he needed to go now. 

However, the Colonel reminded him that they were here to do a job, right now members of his team were waiting to report their findings to their Commanding Officer, him, the guy in charge, and that - he was imagining things. Letting the décor get to him. Best to get on with it and see what the kids had come up with so they could wrap this thing up and get making tracks home. Daniel would keep for a few moments more. He'd still be there five minutes from now. Tabling the mystery for five lousy minutes wouldn't kill anybody. He'd just get this wrapped up and then he could with good conscience give Daniel his full attention. 

Jack was to remember this decision well. He would have little choice. It would haunt him mercilessly in the endless, impotent hours that followed. 

"Captain?" Sam's rank uttered as a request for detailed information, not simply as a salutation. 

"Yes sir, not only is this terminal still functional, but it still contains data. I can't make anything of it, though. Teal'c says that it is Goa'uld." 

"That is correct, Colonel O'Neill." The Jaffa turned his serious gaze upon the man he was addressing. 

"There are tales of these places among my people," Teal'c said in a grimly booming voice, revulsion for what he was looking at plain in his eyes. "Places of horror, death and pain, where living things are taken to be used in whatever way the Masters saw fit. Where they would do the things to other living beings that they said made them greater than us and therefore gods. I had never thought to see such a place as this. " 

Teal'c halted in his dissertation as he panned his stern gaze of judgement all around the room. 

"This is an unholy place, Colonel O'Neill. An evil place. I cannot say what you would learn from what is left here but I would suggest that whatever it is, you do not need to know it." 

As if to emphasis his point the Jaffa drew himself up and crossed his arms across his chest, after which he glowered at O'Neill in a manner which could only be called baleful. 

"Don't mince words there Teal'c, " Jack heard himself saying. "Tell us exactly what you think." 

That was stupid. That was his nerves talking. Truth of the matter was, he was with Teal'c. 

However, from the fire in her eye, Jack could tell that Carter was going to come out on the opposite side of the net. 

"Colonel, Sir, with all due respect to Teal'c, I really don't think it is very scientific or in the best interests of the mission to allow an opportunity to retrieve any sort of data to be sidelined by - sentiment. Even though the means of collecting the information may have been - questionable - still, it's here and just perhaps there is be something here that could be used for good purposes. Colonel, you know yourself we have been told enough that we don't dare pass anything by that might be of use against the Goa'uld. 

It was obvious that Teal'c had more to say and was about to say it. Jack had the sinking feeling that he might have the makings of a small riot on his hands when suddenly, his spider sense went off. 

_Daniel! Behind him, no sound from Daniel. Crap. Something was wrong...._

Teal'c felt it too, almost at the same time. 

"Colonel O'Neill. DanielJackson is no longer in the room with us. I think perhaps it would be wise to see where he has gone." 

Oh, they were going to go after Daniel, all right. A whole lot faster than they had figured. 

For those words were no sooner out of Teal'c mouth when from somewhere down one of those distant corridors, they heard a harrowing sound. 

Someone was screaming. 

Daniel! 

Daniel was screaming... 

Jack was moving, tearing out of the room and toward the terrible sounds at breakneck speed. 

**Part 2**

The very first instant Daniel set foot on P8V-201 he was seized with a terrible, inexplicable urge - to go home. It made no sense. On the other side of the universe he had been fine, entering the gate shaking his head over Jack's latest verbal faux pas and trying to figure out how best to speak to Sam in order to attempt to smooth things over just a little bit on Jack's behalf. 

After which point it had been his original intention to take his friend aside and have had another little chat with him about some of the finer points of learning to communicate in terms that were even slightly less offensive to human beings in general and women in particular. Whether they were wearing Captain's bars or not. 

But that was just so Jack. Not a malicious bone in his body but a mouth that worked faster than the speed of light even as impeded as it was by constantly having one or both feet in it. Jack was the undisputed master of the cut-to-the-bone unintentionally cruel backhanded compliment. His idea of flattery ran something along the lines of: 

"Well honey, that sweater looks really great on you. Why, with the neck like that you can't even SEE your double chin... Ow! Why did you hit me? What did I say?" 

Daniel knew that he was on very firm ground presuming to assume to be capable of advising Jack in this capacity. When he needed to, he never had any problem communicating with people, no matter their gender. Admittedly though, even though he could talk to his fellow human beings he didn't always understand why they did a lot of the things that they did. Many of the subtle nuances of human behavior and interaction escaped him yet, (he wondered if his inability to comprehend his own culture and society was one of the main reasons why he was so drawn to attempting to unravel the puzzle that defeated him in the present by searching in the past) but all of that aside, he could hear and be heard when it mattered. It probably came as a by-product of a life spent largely in observation mode coupled with the willingness to shut up and listen. However he had acquired the capacity, Daniel rarely found that he had any trouble talking to women. If you could just get past that 'us versus them' barrier that a lot of people seemed to throw up between them and the rest of the opposite polarity of the species and offered a person the opportunity to be heard and appreciated, it really wasn't all that hard. 

Talking to Jack, though. At times, that was pretty hard... 

He barely had time to stop himself from attempting to dive back into the event horizon in response to the strange desire - to go home. It was there inside him, full grown and compulsive and quite obliterating any intentions to do anything else but obey it, and he had no idea where it had come from. 

"Okay, campers," Jack was addressing them. "We have a little bit of a trip ahead of us, so form up and let's get started on the double. The sooner we get there the sooner - we get there..." 

On the double. Oh dear. That was one of those amusing military euphemisms for excruciating torture. 

Pointless excruciating torture, let's not forget that.... 

He had to object, just on principal. The day wouldn't be complete without it... 

"Jack - " 

"Just button your lip and move your ass, Daniel. This is the Military, not a democracy. Don't recall opening up the subject for debate. Carter, up front and set the pace. Let's see if you can keep up to her, Danny-boy." 

They set out, the intrepid little band that was SG-1, jogging through the trees, Carter in the lead as indicated, Jack just slightly behind her, making like a tour guide with an attitude. 

"...and directly to your left if you look out your windows you will see - more trees... Trees, trees, if you please... Come on Daniel, Move it! My Grandmother could run faster than you." 

"Yeah, and if she was here you 'd probably make her," Daniel grumbled under his breath, or so he thought. 

"I HEARD that," Jack shot back."Ya got enough energy left to mouth off I should make you drop and give me 25. Why, what a fabulous idea, what do you say, kids, let's stop and do push-ups! I'm sure we'll all find a way to thank Daniel later." 

So they stopped and dropped and did what they had to do praying that the spirit of the drill sergeant that had temporarily possessed their Colonel's body would soon get tired and move on. Jack did ease up on them after that point, so for a great portion of the trip Daniel was able to drop back, plod doggedly after his team mates and become lost in wondering why he felt so distressed. 

_I'll be fine I just need to go home..._

Sam lengthened her stride as the Colonel fell in at her side to continue the run. Feeling just a little self-conscious she picked up the pace just the slightest bit. She was now running slightly faster than was her comfortable pace, but she could do it for a fair bit before she had to pull it back some. She stole a sidelong glance at the Colonel to see if she could catch him watching her, which he was and she did. He leered at her quite shamelessly, took a deep breath and said, "God, just smell that air! We should do this more often, kids, ain't it great!" 

It would appear that the Colonel was in an exceptionally good mood. That definitely portended interesting times ahead, particularly for the youngest member of their team...When the Colonel got 'playful' like this his enthusiasm usually manifested itself in a tendency to inflict minor practical jokes on the rest of them, but on no one more so than Daniel. 

Sam shook her head and deliberately pulled ahead of the Colonel, just a little bit. Funny how life was. Who knew that she would find herself in a situation that a great many women would probably kill to be in. Here she was, on alien planet half way across the universe, the only woman on the entire orb, getting sweaty with three - count 'em three absolutely drop dead gorgeous men who were chasing after her, if not in the figurative sense of the word certainly literally. 

The biggest irony of all? They considered her to be 'one of the boys'. That was well and truly the only way they looked at her, all the way around. How weird was that? 

Sam had never really considered the 3 to 1 imbalance in the gender representation of SG-1 to be a problem. Nor had she ever had occasion to think that she could not trust any of her male team-members not to treat her with dignity and respect. Always as an equal. Given the kind of man that each was in their own right, it was practically impossible that it could be any other way. 

She knew how people talked sometimes. Tried to imply that there was more going on between certain members of SG-1 than was let on to in the mission reports. The latest silly rumor that she had been made aware of had to do with speculations about a relationship between her and Teal'c. 

Not even within the wildest dreams of any sort of probability. The Jaffa would probably have had amputated body parts before 'dishonoring' a fellow teammate. Which, given the restrictions of his personal code of conduct and his own personal obligations is exactly what he would consider it. Due to his own honor and the immutable way that code dictated the confines of his universe, Teal'c was severely limited in the way he could conduct his interpersonal relationships and still be who he was. 

And Daniel? Well, that was even more unlikely. Dear, sweet, head-in-the-clouds Daniel was more like the little brother that you felt you had to look after no matter how annoying he got and that sweet puppy you got for your birthday all rolled up in one than a potential lover. Even if you could get past the slightly incestuous taste in your mouth that was left by even contemplating such a thing as an intimate involvement with Daniel you were then confronted with the inescapable truth that puppy dog in question was a one-woman man. A truly confirmed monogamist in both theory and practice. And if you didn't happen to be that woman he was holding out for you just might as well forget it. As a few 'poachers' who had tried hunting on Sha'uri's preserve had already found out. Daniel had had far more than his fair shares of offers to lead him into all kinds of temptation. So far, when he had been in his right mind and his own man, he had passed... She had seen nothing to lead her to believe that Daniel was going to be changing his resolve on this particular issue any time soon. 

That left the Colonel, didn't it? No doubt there would at first seem to be more of a chance here then with either Daniel or Teal'c, in that he alone of the other two men had no other commitments than the military, but if you thought so, you would be wrong. It was true that she had caught him more than one or twice giving her an on-the-spot short order inspection, and she was more than sure he wasn't checking to see if seams and buttons were straight, collars were starched and shoes were shined. It wasn't that kind of an 'inspection'. 

Sometimes he let her see it, meaning it to be a compliment. Which was the way she took it. It wasn't lust as much as it was -rendering proper respect for what he considered her to be. A beautiful woman. He was attempting to pay her an obvious and quite sincere compliment by showing her that he appreciated the view. On general principle alone, not that he expected that doing so would have any chance of leading them into a situation where they would be practicing any close order drill. That would never happen, or she did not know people and she did not know Colonel Jack O'Neill. 

While it was true that she was a woman, as far as the Colonel was concerned, that fact was entirely secondary to the other more important fact that she was first and foremost a member of SG-1 and a soldier under his command. As long as that situation remained in effect, the Colonel would never allow himself the luxury of pursing a more intimate relationship with her. Nor would she expect or encourage it of him. 

As long as she was subject to his command and he was responsible for her life, as well as the lives of the other members of SG-1, the Colonel could not afford to put either of them in a position where there was a possibility of their personal feelings compromising the safety of their other team members. As the commanding officer he could not allow anything to develop in his relationships with all of his subordinates that would cause a situation to arise wherein he would be tempted to favor one member of his command over another because of tender feelings. He could not be partisan with any of them and be the kind of leader he needed to be to all of them. The Colonel was too good an officer, too fine a soldier and too honorable a man to ever do that to anyone that he served with. 

Besides, she had very good reason to suspect that the Colonel was not as 'unattached' as it would appear. One barely whispered word barely heard that time in the cold and the dark gave her every reason to believe that he was still very much in love with his ex-wife. 

So no matter what anyone thought to the contrary, Sam knew full well that as long as she hung out with this particular group of boys she was only ever going to be considered by all of them as one of them. 

Which was just fine by her. 

Speaking of boys, it seemed as if the Colonel had noticed that Daniel was severely lagging behind them. He winked at Carter, pulled a wheelie and headed back to harass the also-ran far behind them. 

The Colonel pulled in behind Daniel and started to verbally brow beat him, forcing him to run faster in an effort to get out of the range of the man who was breathing on his neck and bellowing in his ear. 

"Daniel! Pick up the pace now! Move it move it move it move it MOVE IT!" 

The archaeologist hastily hotfooted it past her, Jack still on his heels yelling motivational phrases in his ear. As he passed her, Daniel turned an imploring face to her and mouthed "Help me!" 

Sorry Daniel, I ain't getting in the middle of this one. You're on your own... 

Huh! And the Colonel called THEM kids.... 

To the man who was presently standing in the huge room that reeked with death all of that now seemed like a distant dream. One he wished he could go back to rather than be in the waking confusion he now found him in. The feeling of deep panic and needing desperately to go home increased within Daniel almost exponentially upon setting foot in the Goa'uld complex. The smell of the air made him feel physically sick and he did not want to look into the holding pens and see what was left of what had been abandoned to perish in there. 

What a terrible place this was! What were they doing here? What could they learn from what had been done here except how to hurt, maim torture, kill and destroy? 

Daniel suddenly felt as if he was going to become violently ill. He knew that he had to get out of here, get some air or he was going to lose his lunch for sure. 

No one seemed to notice as he slipped from the room and bolted down the corridor toward the remembered exit. Of course, it had been an entrance when they had passed through it the first time but all he cared was it was going to get him out of here and into the fresh air. Daniel clamped a hand over his mouth and ran like hell, glad that he didn't have an audience while doing it. 

His body was convulsing with violent retching motions as he burst out of the building and threw himself up against the outer wall for support. Bracing himself against the wall he slowly slid down it, gulping huge draughts of air in an effort to stop the dry heaving. He allowed his body to continue to slide downward until he was sitting on the ground, his legs drawn up, his arms folded over his stomach. 

Well, thank god the fresh air seemed to be helping. He had come very close, but he hadn't actually honked anything up. 

Oh good grief, he had been hanging around Jack too long. He was starting to sound like him... 

Daniel sat forward and let his head hang between his drawn up knees until the nausea and dizziness passed. He had been in a lot worse places than this in the past couple of years; he couldn't imagine what it was about this place that had affected him so profoundly. He certainly was not normally given to being unusually squeamish. Maybe it had been a side effect of the physical exertion he had just undergone to get here, but he dismissed that. All of Jack's assertions aside, what the team had just done had barely been enough for any of them to break into a sweat. No matter what Jack said, SG-1 didn't exactly sit around and eat bon-bons during their off duty hours. 

It was when Daniel was finally feeling that it was safe to raise his head that he heard the first whispers. Like a tiny breath of a voice carried on the teeth of the wind. A ghost of an echo heard in someone else's dream... 

_...hommmeeeee....._

At first Daniel was sure he had imagined it. Still feeling a bit woozy from the air inside the complex. But it was there again, a little stronger this time. More of an indication of a direction as well. 

_...meee...hhoommeee..._

He HAD heard that! It hadn't been his imagination. There was something in there. Something alive. Something in great pain... 

His bodily distress completely forgotten, Daniel scrambled to his feet and ran back into the building, following the sound of the call for help. 

"Jaaaaccckk!!! Help me, Jack! Jack! Jaaccckkkk! Take me hoommee!!!" 

The screams were coming from the other side of the complex. Only stood to reason that Daniel would pick the farthest point away from help to get into a situation where he needed some... Jack was only dimly aware that Sam and Teal'c were behind him; spurred on by the obvious distress in Daniel's voice. All Jack cared about was getting to him as quickly as possible. 

He thundered down the corridor, through a set of double doors and into a room that looked as if it had been a secondary lab, much smaller than the one they had left, but nevertheless another area dedicated to conducting tests and experiments. 

Peripherally and very quickly Jack noted that this room was in much better condition than the one they had left, almost as if it had been secured and sealed against all intruders. In fact, had it not been that the door had been left open, presumably when Daniel had gone in for whatever reason had possessed him to do so, odds were they would have passed right by it without even seeing it. In fact, they probably had already done so. 

Which raised some interesting questions as to how Daniel not only knew it was here but knew how to get into it, but that could wait. 

As well as could all the perfectly intact equipment in the room itself. Right now their main concern was helping Daniel, and he looked as if he sorely needed it. 

_Ah God - what the hell was that thing?_

Jack fought back a wave of revulsion as he saw what had become of his friend. 

**Part 3**

The middle of the protected room was dominated by a free standing, thick metallic pedestal that supported a domed oval metallic basin, slightly concave in shape, that was lined with a spongy material in a metal honeycombed matrix. It resembled an otherworldly font or some sort of unnatural crèche. The dome had been lifted up, the hollowed out nest beneath it now empty. At one time, however, it was plain that *something * had long been confined within the small area prescribed by the transparent semi-spheroid. 

Looking at what was wrapped around Daniel's chest, Jack felt he could take a fairly educated guess at just what that something had been. 

Daniel had obviously been the one who had opened this particular Pandora's box. He was standing a few feet back from the pedestal, looking down at the pulsing mass of purplish tissue that was adhering to his chest. Whatever it was, it seemed to be burning right through his clothing, doing God only knew what to the skin it was coming into contact with underneath. Right before their eyes the thing started sprouting some kind of tendril network that began to wind its way around Daniel's back, shoulders, arms and neck, also instantly burning away any clothing it came into contact with. By the time Jack reached him the clothing on Daniel's torso hung in ruined shreds about his assaulted form; the tendril network had hit bare skin and was starting to burrow into Daniel's chest. 

Daniel's hands were on the mass that was hugging his chest, in a strangely incongruent fashion. Rather than clawing at it, trying to rip it away Daniel looked almost of it he was attempting to cradle or protect it... 

His bowed head flew up; mad eyes that stared without seeing looked at him through the shaggy fringe of his wildly disordered hair. 

"Jack!" He screamed. "Take me home. I have to go home." 

"Colonel O'Neill!" Teal'c's sharp, warning tones cut through the shock that was enveloping his thoughts. "I do not know if it is wise to touch DanielJackson. We do not know if this creature will confine itself to his body or if it will try to attach itself to anyone else it can reach." 

Daniel was still looking at him, less wild-eyed, with a little more awareness that Jack was indeed there. Jack froze, his head hearing the wisdom of what Teal'c had just said, but every fiber of his being wanting to reach out to touch his friend no matter the personal risk. He wavered in indecision, his eyes locked to the pain-filled, confused ones of Daniel, as the afflicted man began to falter before him. 

Jack knew it was crazy. He knew he shouldn't do it. But no matter what was wrapped around him, this was still Daniel, and there was no way he could let him go down into the dark alone. 

His friend's blue eyes went clear into the depths of his soul, banishing all fear. 

"Help me, Jack," he said softly as his legs began to buckle. 

That was more than enough for him. Jack took the single step necessary to bridge the tiny but formerly unbroachable gap between them, catching Daniel in his arms as he fell. Daniel's head snapped back in an alarming fashion, his body slumped boneless and heavy with the unwieldiness of utter unconsciousness. 

Shoving aside the revulsion that ripped through him at touching whatever the hell it was that was wrapped around Daniel, Jack gently lowered his friend to the floor. Daniel was really out of it. So out of it that he looked dead. Just took a moment to verify that that was not so, and while he was doing that Teal'c and Carter swarmed to his side, looking both at him and at Daniel with equally worried glances. 

"No, it's all right," Jack reassured them. "Whatever it is, it's leaving me alone. Only seems to be interested in Daniel - " 

"For the moment," Teal'c finished. "Even though that is the case at the present time, we cannot assume that as a permanent condition." 

"Teal'c is right, sir," Carter continued. We don't know what this thing is, what it wants with Daniel and what it is doing it him." 

"No way we are going to find out any of those things here." Jack started running his options, cursing the impulse that had made him take his team to this place in the first place. 

"Damn, I picked a fine day to go on a cross country jaunt. It's only about a hundred miles or so back to the damned gate. Well, it can't be helped." He turned to Sam and grabbed her by the arm to underscore the urgency of what he was about to tell her. 

"We need to get Daniel some help pronto. Captain, I want you to take off and high-tail it back to the gate as fast as you can. Get back to base, tell them what has happened and have a medical team and a Haz-Mat team meet us. Teal'c and I are going to take turns carrying Daniel back. I also want a team on site here soonest to do a complete evaluation in situ and an extraction of all the equipment and information that we can from what is left here. I want you to supervise that team Captain, and I want it up and running ASAP. Get me some answers, Sam. I mean it! Now! Off you go, quick like a bunny." 

"Yes Sir," she said quickly, her blue eyes wide with concern and worry for Daniel. "Look after him, Sir," She said to the Colonel, she knew completely unnecessarily. 

"You know it, Sam," he returned grimly." Scoot!" 

She nodded, scrambled to her feet and was gone. 

Bands of cold fear constricting his heart, he gathered up Daniel's unresponsive body into a fiercely protective embrace. He looked down at the ashen face of the man who hung limply in his arms, a visage that was growing whiter by the second, if such a thing was possible. Daniel was barely even breathing, but the colour of the thing that was stuck to him had gotten deeper and stronger. It was now a deep, vibrant indigo colour and it was emitting a strange pulsing sensation. 

Jack had the sudden bizarre feeling that the thing was - purring.... 

He hadn't realized that he was looking down at Daniel and staring for as long as he had. It was Teal'c's hand on his shoulder that brought him back to himself. 

The Jaffa was kneeling across from him, attempting to gather Daniel up into his arms. 

"Colonel O'Neill," he said firmly, while shaking him a little to rouse him. "We should bring DanielJackson back now. I will carry him for awhile." 

Jack could only nod as he allowed Teal'c to take Daniel from him. Feeling numb and helpless, Jack could not take his eyes from Daniel's pale, slack features as he got slowly to his own feet. Daniel was normally so vital, so alive, so energetic, his face characteristically a constantly animated entity that aspired to a life of its own that the contrast was infinitely terrifying. 

He'd sell his soul to see that pale face transformed by one of Daniel's goofy, self-conscious grins. 

Wasn't gonna happen, was it? 

He spared one moment to brush the hair out of Daniel's closed eyes and then turned and sprinted from the room before Teal'c could see that he was beginning to have some problems with his own. 

They hadn't traveled but twenty minutes back down the winding trail when Teal'c suddenly stopped and turned to him, alarm clearly registering on his usually unreadable features. 

"Colonel O'Neill, we must do something. I believe DanielJackson is choking." 

Jack flew to Teal'c side to examine the man in his arms. 

God, it was the goddam ropy things wrapped all around his neck. The nasty little mess on his chest was pulsing and throbbing, tightening; pulling everything it had extruded all around the various parts of Daniel taut as if it was - anchoring itself a good one. Unfortunately in so doing, whether it mean to or not it was also tightening the part of it that was wound firmly around Daniel's throat making of itself an effective noose that was rapidly cutting off his air supply. Daniel's body was shuddering weakly as it tried in vain to get the air it needed, his lips growing rapidly blue and cyanotic. 

Motioning for Teal'c to set Daniel on the ground, Jack completely threw caution to the wind and tried to insinuate his hands in between the purple fibrous noose that was choking the life out of his friend and Daniel's throat. The murderous mass of swollen, squirming tissue would not yield in the slightest to his attempts to wrest it away from its death grip. Teal'c saw what he was trying to do and added his efforts to those of the distressed Colonel, but even the Jaffa's impressive and considerable physical strength could not prevail against the force that was killing Daniel right before their eyes. 

Not if he could help it! If he couldn't pull it off he damned well could _hack_ it off! 

Jack reached back and in one practiced motion released his knife from its sheath on the back of his web belt and pulled it free. He placed the wide blade upon one of the tendrils and was about to start ruthlessly cutting. 

Daniel's eyes flew open. They were wide with alarm and fear. 

"No - hurt - Jack..." The words were barely audible, so constricted was Daniel's throat. 

"Don't you worry, Danny," Jack grimly promised his friend. "I won't let it hurt you anymore." 

Daniel's eyes clouded, his brow knit with confusion. 

"No - no hurt-" 

His eyes closed, his head rolled violently to the side, his breath rattled horribly in his chest, and then ceased. 

Cursing, Jack pushed the blade deep into the purple mass, seeking to slice it away from Daniel as quickly as possible. He was completely unprepared for what happened next. 

Like a receding tide the entire mass pulsed, rippling and flowing away from Daniel's neck and at the same time into him, leaving his neck and shoulders down to the clavicle completely naked and free from any contamination or further danger of harm. The portion of the abomination that had been in contact with the knife and had been sundered by it was the first bit to disappear. It vanished, seemingly without consequence to the thing he had been attempting to hurt. Jack blinked in confusion. He had cut it - but he hadn't harmed it? Trying to cut it did not hurt it? 

But something had indeed suffered as a result of what he had done. There was a substantial consequence to his action. His knife had caused harm. Better he should have cut off his own hand... 

Daniel screamed as a terrible wound spontaneously erupted in the flesh of his shoulder springing open to the bone, rending him deep and wide a full three inches. Blood gushed from the gaping hole, an appalling amount of blood. Oh my god, so much blood what had he done? 

The offending knife was long gone: flung as far from him as he could pitch it in his terror. In a panicked and completely ineffectual attempt to staunch the fatal red flow Jack placed his hands over the wound, trying to pull the ruined, ragged sides of Daniel's flesh together with his fingers while Daniel's very life continued to weep copiously between them. He pressed as hard as he could: it seemed despite his most frantic efforts he was wrist deep in Daniel's blood and still he could not stop it from spewing forth. 

Teal'c was tearing his hands away, attempting to hand him something to press against the wound. His hands were so red; he could feel his head swimming with shock and denial. 

Suddenly help came from an unexpected source. Where he had done harm and could do nothing to make better what he had done, the thing he had been seeking to hurt roused itself and did what he could not. 

The purple tide flowed upward, into and over the wound, sealing it instantly beneath a fibrous bandage that halted the flow of the precious fluid. Daniel sighed softly with relief the moment this was accomplished, almost as if the ministrations of the strange being had brought to him not only the cessation of blood loss but also of the pain which had resulted from the offense to his body. 

Daniel took a deep breath, expelling it in a deep sigh, then turned and opened his eyes. He sought the eyes of the man who wavered over him; still unable to look at his own hands and what covered them lest in so doing he be reminded of what he had just done. 

Jack did not understand what he saw in Daniel's eyes. No fear, no horror, but only a strange, calm understanding. Of what, Jack didn't have the faintest idea. Daniel's' questing glance finally found him, and held him fast. 

"Mistake," he said weakly. "No harm. Understand...Understand, Jack..." 

He was gone again, blue eyes fluttering closed, oblivion-claiming, countenance an ashen mask speckled crimson and dreadful. Jack sat numbly on his haunches beside him, his vision of Daniel's pale, red-streaked face suddenly beginning to swim. 

Oh my god - he was going to be so, so sick. 

Jack barely had time to push himself to his feet and stumble a few paces away from Daniel's side when he collapsed on his hands and knees and began to vomit violently. He thought he was going to crack every rib he possessed with the force of his gagging and heaving. The smell of blood on his sticky, grisly hands made him sicker, the horror of what he had just seen and done pushed his reeling senses past the point that he wanted to stick around and deal with it anymore. 

He was losin' it. Things were getting fuzzy, fading to black. Somewhere he could hear Teal'c calling his name, but there was nothing he could do but just fall.... 

**Part 4**

"Colonel? Take it easy, Sir. Take it slow. Don't try and sit up too fast." 

Sam. That was Sam's voice. Whoa, might be her voice, but she didn't have a grip like that! Somebody had quite a hold on him, pulling him up. 

_...Why Grandma, what big muscles you have..._

Jack opened his eyes with a start to find himself sitting on the ground quite a distance away from the trail where he had originally fallen. Someone had obviously moved him, and from the activity on the trail itself, the people and equipment trundling past, he could see why they had done so. 

Still feeling more than a little dazed and confused (well, moreso than usual anyway), Jack looked to determining the identity of his support system. The muscled arm and the grip of iron belonged to Teal'c. Big surprise. The large black man was kneeling at his side, supporting him in the crook of one huge arm, looking down at him with an expression that would have scared the crap out of Jack the Ripper. 

"Wh-oah, Teal'c." Jack heard himself say from very, very far away. "I hope that face means, 'glad to see ya,' and not 'you only have thirty seconds to live.' 

He felt bad, he felt wrong. Like he was somehow 'fuzzy' or 'out-of-phase' with himself. He was awake, but he wasn't quite all there. 

Sam - Sam was over there talking to one of those medical types. They were both looking at him. They had funny looks on their faces too. What was she saying? 

"...Well, I'll feel better once Dr Frasier gets a look at him. I'm sure it's just shock, but we can't discount the possibility that that thing affected him in some way. He was in pretty close contact with it, after all." 

_Not as close as Daniel..._

DANIEL! 

Oh my god the blood what had he done... 

Memory flooded back to him in a panicked rush. He grabbed a hold of Teal'c's shirt with both hands, but doing that made him see them again and what was all over them and he snatched them away as quickly as the shakes hit. 

"Daniel!" He cried. "Where is he? Where's Danny? DAANNNYY!" 

Sam was beside him, holding onto one arm while Teal'c held down the other. She was in his face, saying something. _Let GO, dammit - I have to finddanny..._

"Colonel! Colonel, relax! Daniel's back at the base, he's being looked after. Right now we're more worried about you." 

"I could not carry you both, Colonel O'Neill". That would be Teal'c. " DanielJackson was the one who was most in need of help, so after I placed you in a position where you would not hurt yourself while you had to be alone and unattended, I continued to proceed with DanielJackson until I was able to put him into the hands of the medical team. Captain Carter and I then returned for you. You have been unconscious for almost two hours." 

"You let him go?" Jack heard himself say. "You didn't stay with him? You left him alone? You left Danny - alone?" 

Sam was talking again. "Something is really wrong here, Teal'c. I have to continue up to the site with the team and get the recovery operation up and running. I really need you up there - you're the only one who can read Goa'uld now that Daniel... Take the Colonel home, first. Make sure that he's all right, and join me as soon as you can." 

_takemehome_

Just for one, small fleeting instant, the tiniest of voices, whispering in his mind in a small island of serenity. 

Then the bad stuff started happening again, snuffing it brutally out. 

He wasn't sure what was going on anymore, it was all so far away. Hands pulling him up onto his feet, a strong arm around him, guiding him as his feet started to move but didn't feel a part of him. He didn't know what he was doing, where he was going. He was just going... 

"Haffta... get this stuff off..." he heard himself muttering. "Get it off. Just get it off..." 

Teal'c said nothing as he steered the Colonel down the trail toward the Stargate. He moved as quickly as he dared, motivated by the urgent need to get the stricken man back to some help and aid as soon as possible. The Colonel did not resist him, but during the entire trip he did not cease from muttering barely coherent and disturbing phrases, and from wringing his hands and plucking distractedly at his bloodstained clothes. 

The Jaffa warrior was deeply concerned. He had seen this before. Seen the mind of a strong and seemingly unbreakable warrior snap under the weight of some uncountable thing that had finally dipped the weight of the scales of horror too far to the side of madness. The Colonel was a very strong man. However, Teal'c had seen harder men shatter as profoundly. 

He had not yet known one to come away from the experience well. 

If there was to be a first time for this to change, he hoped this would be the one. 

Upon arrival in the Embarkation Room Teal'c resolutely waved away all assistance or attempts from anyone to take the Colonel from him. He did so by wearing a face that promised, as Colonel O'Neill would say 'a world of hurt' to anyone who would think of getting in his way. 

Gratifyingly, they did not. 

Teal'c knew exactly what he had to do, and wasted no time doing it. 

He took the Colonel straight to the showers, peeled his clothes from him and thrust him under the cold spray. He then started to make toward the exit, where Dr Frasier, carrying the items he had been on the way to procure met him. 

A towel and a bathrobe. 

The Doctor halted just outside the entrance to the showers, looking up with deeply concerned eyes at the Jaffa warrior as she handed him what she had brought for Jack. "They told me you had brought him back. What sort of shape he was in. Good thinking. This is where I would have taken him first, too." 

"I did not see any sense in trying to make him easier in his mind as long as what was most troubling him was still all over his person," Teal' replied. 

"Damn," Janet Frasier shook her head and frowned with profound frustration. "Psychiatry isn't exactly my field, but I've been seeing signs of this coming for a long time. I had really hoped that I was wrong, but the Colonel's overwhelming sense of responsibility to his subordinates and to Daniel in particular, coupled with Daniel's propensity to more than beat the law of averages when it comes to getting himself hurt..." 

"You are saying that you were aware there would come a time when the Colonel's heart would damage his mind." 

Janet arched an eyebrow and favored Teal'c with an astonished look. "My, what a - poetic way of putting it. But also, very, very accurate. Yes, Teal'c, I believe that is exactly what is happening. Wish I knew what to do about it." 

"How is DanielJackson? News that he is better would do much to help Colonel O'Neill." 

"Don't I know it," Janet expelled an exasperated sigh and ran a hand through her short brunette hair. "Really wish I had some for him. Daniel's still in a coma. We haven't got a clue what's causing it, any more than we know what the hell that thing is that is - wrapped around him and all the way through him. I've run every imaging test I can think of. After what happened off-world I don't dare try to use any invasive techniques. God only knows what that would do to Daniel. 

"I don't know, Teal'c. I just don't know. I can't tell if the thing is animal, mineral, vegetable or a combination of all three. It's alive, but I don't understand how - it doesn't have any internal structures that I recognize as organs except for that fibrous mass in the middle of it and I haven't got a clue what it is or what it does. It has an internal structure that is mostly segmented vacuoles that resemble the structure of a plant, and yet the tendril network reacts to external stimuli as if it was animal nervous tissue. Those - filaments - are all through Daniel's body, wrapped around his internal organs, intertwined with his nervous system - his brain. The comatose state that Daniel is in is definitely artificially induced. His body is being flooded with a hormone - I assume that's what it is - I have never seen anything like it before but it does seem to be having a direct effect upon Daniel's brain. It is almost as if the higher cognitive functions are deliberately being suppressed. And the activity in the hippocampal and pineal areas of the brain.... I've had to put him on full life support. Whatever this thing is, it seems to be feeding on him, sucking the life right out of him. 

"I'm going to have to prepare a full report for the general, advising him of Daniel's condition and my opinion as to the level of biohazard the entity represents. I don't know what to tell him. Teal'c, I just don't know. I've never seen anything like this before." 

"I do not know if it would be wise to let the Colonel see him if things are as dire as you say," Teal'c replied. 

"Do you honestly think you can stop him?" 

Teal'c considered this for a moment. 

"If it was necessary, it would be done." 

"It's risky, I know, but I think it would be worse if we tried to keep him away. See how he is when he comes out, and trust your own judgement. I have to get back now, but if you think it's okay bring him by my office and we'll take him in together." 

"I am most grateful for your assistance," the Jaffa intoned deeply and sincerely. 

He was barely even aware of the water hitting his body. He felt nothing but the cloth on his skin as he scraped mercilessly away at the epidermal layers of his hands, arms and chest. 

_Get it off... have to get it all off..._

The water beat down upon him, he continued to abrade his skin; his mind flickered and flitted between the opposites of sanity and retreat into regions where he would not have to remember. 

_So easy just to let go, to run away. No more pain, no more worries. He would never have to know what happened, never have to face the loss, never have to hurt, never have to grieve..._

...never know if he could have done anything to save Daniel 

...never know what a difference he could have made, if only he had tried. 

...never ever be the man Daniel seemed to think he was... 

Jack dropped the cloth and braced his hands against the cubicle wall as he pressed his forehead to the cold tiles. 

Damn him! Damn him anyway that pesky, moral, right-seeking, right-knowing, unbelievably honorable pain-in-the-butt who somehow always managed to find a way to get under his skin, around his defenses and completely past all his arguments and excuses and right to the heart and the truth of everything. 

Daniel wouldn't be doing this. It wouldn't even have occurred to Daniel for one instant to try and run away. He seldom if ever allowed himself the luxury of self-pity. He sure wouldn't be here - he'd be right out there, by his side, even if there was nothing else he could do but that. The right thing. Daniel would be doing it. 

Well, Daniel deserved a much better friend than he was, but he was all he had at the moment. Jack knew he had already wasted enough time; he wasn't going to waste any more beating himself up about this. He was back, things were looking a little clearer and once again, even though he wasn't even here, he had Daniel to thank for it. 

He also had come to another rather important realization. 

"AAAAAHHHHH! THIS GODDAMM WATER IS FREEZING!" 

**Part 5**

Sam took another drink from the cup of steaming coffee someone had just handed her and rubbed her aching eyes with her other hand. How many hours had they been at this? She had lost count. 

Somewhere behind her Teal'c was tirelessly pouring over the material they had managed to access from the terminal in the 'safe room'. That was the term someone - she didn't remember who - had coined for the room that had been shut off and protected from the attack that had devastated the rest of the complex. The room where they had found Daniel - with what it had been keeping confined within here all that time. 

Teal'c had returned from his mission to bring the Colonel home several hours ago. He had not been willing to volunteer much information about what had happened back at base. Only that the Colonel was better, and was with Daniel. 

Daniel, however, was not better. When Teal'c had left him, he was still comatose, still slipping away. Still being controlled and consumed by that thing that was clinging to him. 

Sam felt helpless, distressed and deeply torn. A part of her wanted very much to be back in the infirmary, to be with both of the men, as if by merely being there she could do something. However, she knew that that was an illogical, emotional desire. Thinking more of herself than either Daniel or the Colonel. Her presence in that room could do nothing to ameliorate the situation in any way. This was where she could help. Do the most good. By doing her job to the best of her ability, and finding out what they needed to know in order to save Daniel. This is was where she was most needed. 

That was why the Colonel had put her in charge. He had put all his faith in her, trusting her to do her job, to be the best, to find the answers. By doing so he told her that he was confident that Daniel's life was in good hands. 

Well, she was not about to disappoint him. She didn't care how long it took, how long she had to look for it, how long she had to forsake all other considerations, she was going to find all the answers they needed. 

_I won't let you down, guys. There is an answer here, and I am going to find it. I promise._

The safe room had already yielded a number of deeply intriguing secrets, none the least of which was the pedestal and the receptacle where 'the blob' had been housed. 

The grid in the basin appeared to be the terminus of set of integrated systems that were completely isolated from all the other systems in the complex. Clearly they were all meant to function together as a life support system for the entity, and the fact that that life support system was self-contained and self-generated gave Sam to believe that whatever this thing was, it had been important to the scientists here that this specimen alone of all the others should survive. 

Maybe they had meant to return for it once whatever had happened here had - blown over. If that was their intention, it was evident they had, for whatever reason, not been able to carry it through. However, they had succeeded in their intention to preserve the specimen. For quite an impressive amount of time. 

Her original estimates as to the amount of time the complex had been abandoned had been four to five hundred years. Upon further examination of what remained she found she had to substantially amend that original assessment. It was far too conservative. 

Whatever that thing was, it had been in that receptacle, for at least eight hundred years. There was no way to know how long it had been a captive prior to that period, but that unknown span of time aside, the fact remained that it still had been here, alone, trapped in this room under that glass for a very, very long time. 

She wished she knew more about what Janet must have been able to discover about the nature of the creature itself: even given what she extrapolated about it based upon what she had learned from examining the support system she still could not fathom how a living being, no matter how different it was from the life forms she was currently acquainted with, could have survived for so long on so little. 

The metal grid lining the basin was a series of emitters that were connected to a solar power grid on the roof of the complex. The solar grid was linked to a series of regulators that were themselves powered by a source she had never seen before but seemed to be self-renewing that kept the solar energy at consistent, extremely low amperage. It appeared to function both as a power regulator and as a capacitor, constantly compensating for any power fluctuations or shortages - solar not being the most reliable of sources - in such a way as to insure that the current was never interrupted and was a constant amperage. 

Even though obviously a much more reliable power source for the basin's grid existed in the control system that regulated it, the fact that the grid was solar-powered suggested to Sam that for some reason the creature needed solar energy. She wouldn't have thought there was a difference. Power was power was power, but it was dangerous to make assumptions like that. There had to be a reason for the Goa'uld to have gone to so much trouble to set this system up. Her experience of that rather reprehensible race had more than taught her that they did not do anything just for the hell of it. A whimsical or innovatively inventive species they definitely were not. 

Then there was the nutrient system. This was the most amazing thing that Sam had ever seen. Once the R&D guys got hold of this thing, they were going to be on the ceiling for years. The technology contained within it was really quite - breath taking. 

The nutrient solution itself was almost disappointingly simple. Nothing more than a kind of amino acid, vitamin, mineral-rich slurry with a few proteins thrown in for good measure. It was the delivery system that took her breath away. 

Again, it was all self-contained. Once set in motion, it would continue to perform its function until turned off. Powered by the same type of system that regulated the solar grid, its components at first glance seemed deceptively simple. A clear, sealed chamber about the size of a breadbox (funny, given what it was that that particular analogy should spring to mind) that was three quarters full of a wispy, fibrous brown substance that she could not even begin to identify except to be reasonably certain that it was organic. A finely meshed screen bisected the receptacle very nearly in half, separating the portion that housed the organic material from the actual reservoir that contained the slurry. A network of extremely fine filaments like a web conducted the slurry to the metal grid where it soaked the cushiony honeycomb network. 

That was all very well and good and not all that remarkable but there was more. For you see, there could be only one purpose that she could see, for that particular arrangement of components. The slurry had to come from somewhere; somehow, the brown stuff was converted into it. Trying to figure out THAT one was going to keep a lot of white-coated goons very happy. 

Somehow, some process that was currently not discernable to her actually converted one type of matter into another. Somehow the molecules of the brown stuff were actually being rearranged and reconstituted into the slurry. That could be the only explanation for what she was seeing. The implications were - astonishing. 

Well, they already knew that the Goa'uld had the ability to manipulate matter. The transport rings were proof of that. The Stargate as well. Even though they did not invent it, the Goa'uld probably understood how it functioned better than the human scientists who were only beginning the process of attempting to convince it to yield its secrets to them. However, if this humble little device functioned on some of the same principles and they were able to figure out how it worked, well the implications... 

The scientist in Samantha Carter wanted to toss her dignity into the air and execute several cartwheels across the room. The opportunities for pure research and discovery that this font represented were as exciting to her as if she had discovered the Holy Grail. In a strange sort of way, maybe she had. 

However, worry and shame quickly replaced the elation. Whatever this system had been built to protect, no matter how wonderful it seemed to be to her, it had kept alive something that was killing Daniel. Wonder and scientific curiosity be damned, as well as all the possible benefits to the world that might be contained herein. If this thing cost Daniel his life, she'd blow it up herself... 

Any further morbid speculating in that direction was cut short by the sound of Teal'c's voice. 

"Captain Carter," he said in a tone that for him was positively taut with excitement. "I believe I have accessed the data that concerns the creature and the purpose of this place." 

Sam was instantly at his side, peering at the screen of the computer terminal they had brought and set up next to the Goa'uld device. It hadn't been easy, but with Teal'c's help and a lot of inspired inventiveness they had managed to jury-rig an interface between the two pieces of equipment. Downloading the data was dreadfully slow and prone to constantly crashing the system, but it was barely possible. 

As soon as she reached the computer, she automatically inserted a fresh disk into the drive and hit the back up. Then she had to content herself with standing at Teal'c's side as he took in the columns of alien script that slowly scrolled up the screen. 

"Well?" She finally said impatiently after she had allowed exactly two and a half minutes to elapse. 

"It is difficult." The Jaffa said crisply." There is much information here. This particular section appears to be concerned with the purpose of this complex. The creature is only peripherally mentioned." 

"What were they doing here, Teal'c?" Sam tried to keep the frustration out of her voice at having to rely on someone else to do her reading for her. Wasn't Teal'c's fault that she couldn't read Goa'uld. 

"Very curious," Teal'c said slowly. "This project appears to be largely concerned with investigating ways to make certain - improvements to the human host bodies by experimenting with other life forms in order to see if they can be used to effect these - improvements. The entity in this room appears to be their highest hope for achieving this objective." 

"Improvements? " Sam echoed. "What kind of improvements?" 

"Their concern seems to center around the human potential for - I believe you would call it - psi abilities." 

"What?" Sam looked at him as if she had not quite heard him right. "That's - absurd!" 

"Nevertheless that is what they appear to have been trying to do here, Captain Carter." 

Any further comments she might have made were abruptly cut short by the strident, high pitched skreel of deafening sound that ripped through the air all around them. Sam covered her ears to protect them against the assault as a series of red, flashing characters suddenly appeared on the computer screen. 

Teal'c's eyes widened noticeably with alarm. "Captain Carter," he shouted at her over the din. "We must leave this place at once. Someone has activated an auto-destruct device. We have less than five minutes before it explodes." 

She put a hand on his arm and pushed him toward the door. "Go alert the others - get them out of here. I am going to try and save as much of this data as I can. Go!" 

Teal'c favored her with a look that plainly communicated his enormous displeasure with her instructions but he did not argue with her, merely turned on his heel and bolted from the room. 

Fighting past the pain of the sonic attack Sam went to work on the computer. She finished downloading the current file, halted the transfer and put a fresh disk in the drive. After pocketing the disk that already contained precious data she hit the button that started the transfer again and crossed her fingers. 

Slow. So slow. Hurry up hurry up hurry up DAMMIT! 

The seconds crawled by. She thought her head was going to explode from the noise that was making her senses swim. Still the machine ticked over with agonizing lethargy. Please, please hurry... 

An iron grip encircled her arm, scaring her out of her wits. "Captain Carter!" Teal'c shouted into her ear. "There is no more time. We must leave - now!" 

"Just a few more minutes - " 

The Jaffa was not going to give her that time. Resolutely, he began to haul her away from the computer. She shrugged loose just long enough to grab for the second disk, then he had a hold of her arm again and was whirling her around and literally dragging her out of the room and down the corridor after him while he tore down it himself in a dead run. 

Sam could barely keep up with him. Several times she was sure he was going to pull her right off her feet. The Jaffa was not gentle, but then he didn't have time to be. Linked in that implacable grip they desperately pelted down the corridor toward the egress as if their very lives depended on it. 

Well, guess they did. 

How long had it been since the initial alarm had sounded? She didn't know. The open door to the outside loomed before them. They were less than ten feet away now. They were going to make it... 

Without breaking his stride Teal'c somehow reached around and scooped her up into his arms, putting on a further burst of speed, holding her against his body almost as if he was trying to somehow shield her... 

It was then that everything became sound, fury, madness and fire... 

**Part 6**

_Godgodgod Danny you look so pale. I can barely even feel you with me anymore. Don't' go yet..._

Jack lowered his weary head, pillowing it on the arms that were resting on the bed upon which Daniel's body reposed in its death-like stillness. He took a deep sobbing breath, trying to pull back from the brink of completely drowning in despair. 

So many hours had gone by. 

Nothing had changed. 

Except for the worst. 

Teal'c had pulled him from the shower at the first sounds of his distress, bundling him immediately in a very large towel. A few stumbling phrases and being able to look him in the eye had somewhat reassured the Jaffa that Jack was feeling a little more like himself. He had accepted the help back to his quarters where he had stayed only long enough to pull on some clean clothing and the nearest pair of boots. He also remembered mumbling something to Teal'c, as they had made their way to the infirmary, that he wanted the uniform he had left discarded in the shower burned. 

Janet had given him a quick once over, asked him a few questions that he didn't remember now but somehow must have answered to her satisfaction because she hadn't locked him up somewhere, and then they were on their way to Daniel. They had him, amidst all the equipment that was attached to him monitoring him and keeping him alive, in an isolation room. Intellectually, Jack understood the need for the precaution, but it struck him deep inside. It seemed so cold, so lonely, so unfair somehow. 

He had tried, God knows he had tried, to prepare himself for what he had seen next. Janet had done her best to break it to him, to bring him up to speed, before she had let him go in that room. Before she had let him see.... 

Without raising his head Jack groped blindly toward Daniel, seeking the shoulder that his hand eventually found. So cold. Daniel felt like ice beneath his fingers. Jack couldn't look up. Couldn't look at him. Couldn't see - anymore. Hating himself for his weakness, Jack ground his forehead into his forearm until he wanted to cry out from the pain but would not allow himself the luxury, the hand that held Daniel's shoulder clutching, gripping harder than he knew he should. As if somehow by hurting Daniel, just a little, he could make him respond. Show some sign of life. Come back. 

He was glad that Teal'c had been beside him and had had a good hold, because when he had first come into this place, he had needed shoring up. Daniel was lying on the bed, uncovered, looking exposed and vulnerable, clad only in the bottom half of hospital greens. Janet had explained that they had had no choice but to leave him that way. The thing had burned off anything they had tried to cover him with; the same way it had disintegrated his clothing. They - just gave up trying. 

Daniel was so still, cadaverously pale, so drained of vitality and colour that it had almost terrified Jack back into that state he had only just pulled himself out of. By contrast the thing on Daniel seemed to be thriving. The indigo colour had deepened, and there was a strange amethyst luminescence in the center of the mass that thummed and pulsated with a definite, regular rhythm. There seemed to be something familiar to that hypnotic cadence, and then Jack became aware of the machine beside Daniel, the cardiac monitor, that was beeping in obscene harmony to the measured throbbing of the monstrosity. An unholy duet.... 

God - it was pulsing in time to the beating of Daniel's heart! 

There was a chair by the bed. He saw it, made for it, deposited himself in it before his legs gave out. He sat there, limp and drained, looking dumbly up at the concerned faces of Janet and Teal'c. He opened his mouth to try and make some kind of crack but couldn't think of anything. 

_Can't talk your way out of this one, O'Neill. All the snappy patter in the world isn't going to change a thing._

Eventually he had found a way to say something. At least enough to reassure the Doc and Teal'c that he wasn't going to do anything that would require the further services of a babysitter. Janet had gone, saying that she would be back to check up on them in twenty minutes, and he had sent Teal'c away to join Carter. But not before trying to stumble out some kind of thank you for what the Jaffa had done for both of them. 

He didn't know what he had said. He didn't know if it was right, didn't know if it was enough. But Teal'c understood. Jack could see it in his eyes. It was with great reluctance that the Jaffa left the room. Doing his duty. Doing what he had to do. Doing what Daniel most needed him to do. Just like Sam. 

_Find something, Sam. Please find something..._

For once in his life Jack regretted what he was. Simply a soldier. He possessed no special skills, no knowledge, nothing that would be of any use in helping to save Daniel. He could contribute nothing to the search, nothing to the effort. He was - useless. He might as well sit here and feel sorry for himself, there was nothing he could do here or anywhere that would do the least bit of good. 

That had been hours ago. Duty personnel had come and gone, ghostly white shadows that had barely registered upon his awareness, checking readings, checking Daniel, checking him. The meaningless minutes hours and seconds swam about him, swirling in a mocking miasma of impotence and crushing self-doubt. Daniel was right beside him, but there was no answering warmth beneath his hand, nothing to hold onto in the cold flesh that he clutched, no spark of hope or comfort to warm his aching heart. 

Daniel would know what to say. Daniel would be able to make it right. Right up until this moment Jack had never realized just how completely he had taken that lynchpin of his universe for granted. Daniel was a constant that he never questioned or doubted. He just - was. And because he was, everything else that was made sense for Jack. 

Faced with the very real eventuality that that which gave meaning to his very existence was about to be taken from him, Jack had no idea how to begin to face it - without Daniel. Nor did he feel he even had the slightest modicum of courage to be able to endure it. 

_God help me Danny - I can't do this. I can't do this anymore. I'm not strong enough, I'm not brave enough. If you go, you'll take the best part of me with you, and what's left won't even be worth worrying about._

Feeling himself beginning to crumble, Jack instinctively reached out for the hand that was always there to catch him. The hand that had never failed to be there, when he most needed it. The hand he knew would never fail him, the same way he knew the sun would not fail to rise every morning. 

Reached out - and it was not there. 

Crying out in shock and utter disbelief, Jack fell... 

Sam brushed away the hovering hand of the medic that was putting the finishing touches on the dressing on her forearm and gingerly eased herself off the examination table. She winced as her feet became fully weight-bearing again; it wasn't going to be fun walking around for the next couple of days with her right hip and side bruised the way it was. She and Teal'c had hit pretty hard when the explosion had hurled them the rest of the way out of the building. Thank God that door had been open, else they probably would have been smeared all over it by the force of the blast. 

She had suffered a few minor cuts and bruises. Teal'c had taken the worst of it. She turned to look at the impassive man who sat stoically on the table across from her, patiently submitting to the ministrations of the medics who were tending to the numerous lacerations to his back, arms and shoulders. The Jaffa looked like he had been put through a paper shredder. Twice. He seemed no more concerned about it than if he was having a hangnail removed. 

"How you doing, Teal'c?" She smiled at him as she experimented with taking a few steps. Still didn't care much for it, but she could do it. 

"I am fine, Captain Carter. I am also pleased to see that you seem to have sustained only minor injuries." 

"Thanks to you," She grinned ruefully at him. "If you hadn't come back for me when you did I wouldn't be here right now. Thanks for saving my butt back there." 

Teal'c inclined his head in acknowledgement of her words. The faintest trace of a smile flirted with his lips. 

"I understand that you are very fond of that particular portion of your anatomy. I am pleased that I was able to be of assistance in enabling you to retain it." 

"Yeah," she laughed. "I'll keep that in mind the next time the Colonel decides it doesn't pass muster. Speaking of the Colonel, I know we have to get back to working on decoding this data, but I have to -" 

"I understand," Teal'c replied softly. "I have no doubt that he will be very glad to see you. I will be done here shortly," he paused to favor the medic with a meaningful look, not so much to seek confirmation of that fact but to inform the man that this was so. "Give me the disks and I will begin to work on them until you return." 

"Thanks, Teal'c." She said gratefully, squeezing his hand and passing him the disks. "You're a treasure." 

"So I have been told," he replied matter-of-factly. 

Sam beamed at him and ran from the room just as fast as she could hobble. 

She found herself holding her breath as she moved cautiously into the darkened room where Daniel lay. The only sounds that filled it were those made by the medical equipment that functioned ceaselessly, uncaring of who or what was there to witness their servitude. 

She paused in her transit of the room, confused by what she saw. Or rather, by what she did not see. The Colonel was not there. There was an overturned chair at the bedside, but no sign of the Colonel. Feeling more than a little disturbed by this, she continued to make her way to Daniel's bedside. 

She had to work hard at suppressing the gasp of horror that wanted to burst forth from her when she saw Daniel. Even though she could plainly hear the monitors working, confirming the fact that he was living and breathing, she still had to touch him to verify that fact for herself. 

He was as cold as he looked, the pallor of his skin almost a bloodless blue. Breathing so shallowly that it could barely be detected. Not knowing why he was lying there exposed she looked about angrily for some sort of blanket or cover, and saw nothing. Feeling she needed to do something, she picked up one of his limp hands and started to vigorously chafe it, hoping to impart some of her own strength and warmth to him. 

She was so angry that she almost missed it. There - the faintest of flickers - his eyelids trembled as something behind them moved almost imperceptibly. 

Excitedly she dropped his hand and took Daniel's face in her hands. She leaned forward, peering intently into his face, looking for another movement to confirm what she thought she had seen. 

Nothing. Damn. She knew she had seen something. 

She pushed aside the hair that tumbled down, somewhat obscuring his eyes and laid a hand on his forehead as she leaned closer. 

"Daniel," she said softly but strongly. 

"Daniel! Daniel, it's Sam. Can you hear me?" 

Sam was a scientist. A complete creature of the mind, and intellect, a disciple of the Church of the Rational and Explainable. There was no room in her universe for that which could not be explained or contained within the purview of her strictly ordered understanding of everything that was. 

She was completely unprepared for the occurrence of the knowing. 

Somehow, in that instant of touching Daniel and seeking to discover if he could hear her something touched her in return. Something that filled her mind with a knowing that she could neither explain nor refute. A knowledge she further did not know she was going to require very shortly. 

As her mind reeled with relief and confusion she heard the sounds behind her. 

Someone was crying. The sounds were badly muffled, but they were coming from the darkened corner on the other side of the room. 

In response to what she needed to do the knowing released her. Shaking her head in dazed relief she caressed Daniel's forehead gently in a parting gesture, and then straightened up to go and investigate the distressed sounds emanating from the darkness. 

It was the Colonel. She had known it would be. It couldn't have been anyone else. 

He had jammed himself into the corner, hunched over into a compact ball of misery, his head resting on arms that were folded over drawn up knees. His body heaved with sobs that threatened to crack his very heart and even muffled, the sounds that he was making were the most awful things that Sam had every heard. 

Sam froze in her tracks - awed and terrified by such manifest misery as she had never in her life ever experienced. The very air about the Colonel was thick almost to the point of suffocating with the psychic force of his misery and despair. It hurled itself at her across the empty space between them, pummelling her breath from her body with its awful power, making her want to bolt from the room and not look back. 

She took a step back, overwhelmed by what she was seeing and feeling, barely suppressing the urge to flee in response to the terror such primal agony engendered within her. She had never witnessed such terrible distress and it pushed her almost to the point of blind panic. It simply was too awful to behold, to experience. There wasn't enough consolation in the world to deal with this. She didn't have the words, didn't know where to begin, could not do anything for him because of her own terror of the responsibility that was being thrust upon her that she did not feel adequate to shoulder. 

_Tell him what you know, Sam. He needs to hear it...He won't hear me..._

She jumped as she heard Daniel's voice. Not outside - inside. Oh man, this was just getting too weird. 

This is not happening this is not happening. An aftereffect of the blast. Must have hit her head. Must be shock. 

_Get a hold of yourself, Carter. Suck it up and get going. The Colonel needs you._

Taking a deep breath Sam resolutely shouldered her way through the forcefield of despair that surrounded the Colonel and dropped to her knees by his side. 

She put one caring hand on his arm, the other on the top of his head as she tried to use her presence to penetrate the barrier of his misery. 

"Colonel" she entreated him. "Colonel, it's Sam," 

Now that she was this close to him she could hear the muffled words riding on the carrier waves of his sobs. 

"I can't do this I can't do this not again can't lose my boy again not again Danny don't do this to me..." 

_Omigod, not this! I didn't realize... What do I do, what do I say? Jesus..._

Sam momentarily floundered beneath the weight of her concern and her uncertainty. Then, as quickly as the panic had come it was banished by the calm knowledge of precisely what was needed. The words came from her, carrying a weight and an authority she did not recognize, almost as if someone else who was far wiser than she was speaking through her. Saying exactly what the Colonel needed to hear. 

"Listen to me, Jack," she said firmly with earnest conviction. "Don't be afraid. There is no need. Daniel is not going to die. He's not going to leave you - leave any of us. What is happening to him right now is simply a stage. He'll be coming back to us, very soon. Trust me. Trust me Jack." 

The instant she uttered those two simple words the Colonel's head flew up. His red-rimmed eyes were wide with nascent, desperate hope, his face a tear- runnelled battleground upon which pain and its cessation contended for mastery. 

"I trust Daniel," he gasped in a ragged, barely audible voice. 

Not knowing why it was happening, she heard words she did not understand coming out of her mouth yet again. 

"Trust him now," she said. "He made you a promise he has no intention of breaking." 

She had no idea what she had just said, but it was working. Hope was dawning in formerly dead eyes. More than hope, almost unbearably naked joy. 

"Daniel promised. Daniel promised." Not spoken as an inquiry or something that required confirmation, but as a statement of absolute, immutable fact. 

The Colonel looked at her, seeing her for the first time. He grabbed her face between his hands, a sob of relief tore from him, and tears began to fall anew, tears of relief and happiness. 

"Daniel promised!" He shouted as his grip tightened about her face a little painfully. She gritted her teeth against it and smiled back at him. 

"Yes Sir," was all she could come up with. 

He released her face and then threw himself forward, falling against her, into her arms. She held him tightly as he laughed and sobbed into her shoulder, purging the last of the fear and doubt in a shuddering release of sound and salt water that she strove to support as resolutely as she could. She knew she would stay that way and be there for him as long as he needed her to be. 

**Part 7**

It was the morning of the second - was it the second day or the third? Sam wasn't quite sure anymore. After she had finally been able to leave the Colonel, frankly asleep in the chair at Daniel's bedside, she had gone back to the Astrophysics lab to rejoin Teal'c. Who of course was very much there and still quite hard at it. 

SGC, normally quiet in the wee small hours, had been rife with the activity of the teams returning from P8V-201 in the aftermath of the total destruction of the Goa'uld complex. Whatever you wanted to say about the worms, they were thorough. There hadn't been enough left of the place to put in a shoebox. 

She was just glad to know that everyone had escaped from the building before it went. They had lost a lot of equipment and who knew how many irreplaceable opportunities to expand their knowledge and understanding - but no lives had been lost. 

No lives were going to be lost, either. 

Daniel was going to be all right. 

She knew this. 

It was nuts, it was insane, she had no evidence, no scientific basis for this - opinion - for lacking confirming facts or proof, there was nothing else she could call it - and yet - it was bloody well so! 

It was so much so it was right up there with every other immutable fact that she could think of that demonstrated that the world had order, made sense and the universe was turning over as it should. 

What goes up must go down. 

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. 

Energy cannot be either created or destroyed. 

Two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom make one molecule of water. 

Daniel was going to be all right. 

It was in there, it was fact, it could not be denied and she could not make it go away. 

So, for once in her life, she stopped trying. 

Just surrendered the mental struggle to cram the unexplainable into the framework of her completely logical reality construct. 

Took it on faith... 

It was weird, but not too bad. 

And guess what, wonder of wonders, the world was not coming to an end... 

_Wait till I tell Daniel about this, he'll be so pleased..._

It no longer distressed her that the complex was destroyed. 

Did not worry her in the slightest when Teal'c told her that the most of the files she had nearly gotten herself blown up to secure were encrypted and therefore impossible to access. 

It didn't even bother her to know that she had to go to a briefing before the General in the morning and she had next to nothing of use to tell him. 

Didn't matter. Daniel was going to be all right. 

That, more than anything else she could think about at the moment, truly made the universe make sense. 

Someone was shaking her gently. With a guilty start, she opened her eyes to find that she was lying sprawled across her desk. She had fallen asleep. Wonder how long she had been out. Who? 

"Teal'c," she rubbed her eyes and blinked, still a little disoriented from her abrupt reentry into consciousness. Wha - oh, I fell asleep on you. Really sorry." 

"That is quite alright, Captain Carter. There was little you could do to assist me, and your own needs were better served by allowing yourself the time to rest. I let you remain that way as long as I could, but I believe you should get up now. You will want to prepare yourself for the briefing with the General." 

"Whoah!" She made a face as she ran a hand through her rumpled blonde hair and pushed herself to her feet. "Got that right, my friend. What time is it?" 

" Thirty minutes before the designated hour." 

"Ah, nine thirty," she said thoughtfully, automatically translating. Half an hour. Plenty of time. Good. I can freshen up, put on a clean uniform and still have time to look in on Daniel and the Colonel. She gave Teal'c a light, parting slap on his arm, being careful to contact him on an area that was not covered by a dressing. Then she started to walk from the room. 

"Captain Carter," Teal'c's clearly interrogative tone brought her up short just at the doorway. 

"Yeah, Teal'c " she said to him, turning. "What can I do for you?" 

"I am curious." He was too; she could see it in his eyes. "Since returning from DanielJackson's room you have been in an - unusual mood. You appear to be imbued with a spirit of optimism that would not seem to be supported by the events of the last three days." 

Ah, so this was the third day. That was nice to know. 

"I wish to inquire what has occurred that has allowed you to experience this change of perspective." 

She beamed at him in the full comfort and knowledge that she was telling him the complete and utter truth. 

"Oh, didn't I say? Sorry. Daniel is going to be all right." 

She turned on her heel and left the room. Even though there was no one else in the room with him to witness the effect her words had had upon him, the Jaffa warrior still drew himself up and crossed his arms reflectively as he regarded the empty air with what was for him a deeply quizzical look. 

It wasn't going very well. The lingering air of frustration and incompleteness that permeated the atmosphere of the briefing room was not helped by the noticeable absence of the colonel. When Sam had gone back to Daniel's room to look in on them she had found the colonel still sitting in the chair, still asleep, his upper body splayed across Daniel's bed. She had considered waking him but something had restrained her. A small - request - that she not intrude. It seemed to come from the same place inside her where everything else that did not make sense but was easing her mind was residing, along with a feeling that she should not be concerned, something was about to happen. 

Okay fine. She would let it be. She was really trusting this - whatever it was. It felt like - the touch of a friend. 

So she had left the two men behind and gone straight on to the briefing room. Her attempt to try and explain the Colonel's absence to the General had been forestalled by Hammond's quiet assurance that Dr Fraiser had already apprised him of the situation. 

So there they all were. All the players assembled for the drama about to commence. Really would have been nice if she could have given them a few more lines... 

She opened with the summary of what her team had been able discover in the complex. Which pretty much simply consisted of a run-down of the systems in the safe room. Janet jumped in to bolster the conclusions Sam had come to about the nature of the creature based on the information provided by the support system. 

It was not quite either a plant or an animal, but a little of both. It did appear to require solar energy which would lead one towards accepting photosynthesis as a possible way that it maintained itself, thereby reinforcing the plant theory, however the presence of the nutrient solution in the crèche that clearly was compatible with animal metabolic requirements demonstrated that it also needed to - eat. It appeared to function normally in the presence of an oxygen atmosphere and yet did not seem to need one in order to survive - witness the sealed, airtight container in which it had been kept. It's life cycle - it's lifespan? There was no way to know this based on the information they currently possessed. Except to draw the obvious conclusion, based on how long it had already been confined in the safe room, that it was safe to say it was very much longer-lived than most form of organic life they were currently familiar with except for maybe Goa'ulds, humans with a sarcophagus or possibly - trees. 

Teal'c took the floor next. What he had to share with the group carried with it that same tang of frustration. Like getting a peek at your Christmas present before it went back into the closet, just enough of a look to get you interested, but not enough for you to actually be able to find out what it was. 

The only unencrypted portion of the files had been the actual project summary, and it wasn't incredibly helpful. Whatever they had been up to with the little bundle of joy that had been secreted in that place, the Goa'uld had kept pretty mum about it. The aim of the research being conducted in the lab, centering about the project that featured their wee purple nightmare, had been the substantial biological modification of the human host species. It appeared the Goa'uld wished to see if they could alter the human brain in order to make it capable of functioning in - hitherto inaccessible areas. Specifically those areas that had to do with psychic abilities. They seemed to be particularly interested in telepathic and psychokinetic potentials. 

What was not so clear from the summary was exactly how they planned to do this. Or what the creature had to do with this. Presumably that information was contained in the encrypted files. Information about the creature itself was maddenly scant as well. Where it had come from was not in the summary, however, strict instructions as to the importance of safeguarding it and preserving it were. Reading between the lines one got the impression that it was either one of a kind, the last of its kind or just not easy to get a hold of. Which of the above it was impossible to know, but they sure thought it was important. Possibly dangerous as well. After all, look what had happened to Daniel. Yup, they sure wanted to keep it under wraps, keep it alive and keep everyone else from knowing what they had. 

Would have been nice to know why. 

As diverting as all of this information was, it really wasn't a lot of help when it came to trying to decide what to do next. What are we going to do about Daniel? 

It was Janet's turn now. Sam looked over at the grim-faced doctor, not envying the position her friend was in. 

"Dr Frasier," the General began, affixing her with a less-than-satisfied look. "What is Dr Jackson's current condition?" 

"He appears to have - stabilized - Sir," Janet began. "While he still does not show any signs of emerging from the coma, his life signs are no longer declining. I was able to take him off life support this morning. The abnormal brain activity continues to increase, however, the creature itself is not longer - growing. The level of the alien hormone that was being secreted into his system also appears to be decreasing." 

"What conclusions do you draw from this, Doctor?" 

" I don't know that I have enough information to be able to make a determination at this time. I feel however, that he is no longer in danger." 

The General favored her with a long, speculative look. 

"On what do you base this opinion?" 

Janet flushed uncomfortably. "I'd rather not say, sir. It isn't very - scientific." 

_So Janet, have you been talking to Daniel too?"_

Sam started as the errant thought fluttered through her consciousness. Where the hell had THAT come from? 

The General had caught the movement. "Captain Carter, are you wanting to jump in here?" He asked her mildly. "Something else to throw on the table?" 

Sam mentally kicked herself but if Janet could put her head in the noose she might as well have a little company. 

"Ah, Sir, only that I concur with the Doctor and I am equally unable to explain why." 

The General sighed deeply, spread his hands on the table in front of him and spent what seemed to those who were watching him an agonizing amount of time in their apparent contemplation before he looked back up at the hushed assemblage, a distinctly unpleased expression on his face. 

"Well, at this point I would deem it a personal favor if SOMEBODY could explain SOMETHING to me!" 

Sam was spared the problem of coming up with a suitable response, for at that moment the closed door to the briefing room opened to admit an extremely unwelcome visitor, flanked by gaggle of MPs armed to the teeth. 

Sam took one look at him. There was only one thing to say. 

"Crap!" 

Jack knew that he was dreaming, but that didn't make what was going on any easier to take. 

He wasn't sure where he was. Somewhere strange. There were people, so many people all around him, rushing, hurrying, pressing upon him, impeding him, holding him back. He was looking for someone. Someone he had to find, had to get to. He couldn't quite remember who - there was a face, on the periphery of his memory, the impression of a voice. Someone who needed him to get to them. Why couldn't he remember... 

There was a sudden inrushing infusion of warmth and strength within him, a lightness, a welcome lifting of heaviness, and pain. The confusing panorama faded away like wisps of morning fog banished by the wakening sun. With the warmth came a feeling of comfort and the exorcism of fear. Life was returning. It was time for him to come back. Time for both of them to come back. 

Feeling a very tangible hand pulling him skyward, Jack began to move inexorably from the world of sleeping shadows to the outer world of wakefulness. He surfaced slowly, gently, as if being rebirthed by a most caring midwife. Gradually he began to become aware of the bed beneath his upper body, the chair upon which he sat, the fact that his head was pillowed on one arm. The other, the one that had been touching Danny's shoulder was still in that general vicinity. However, it was no longer resting on his shoulder. It was being held fast, cupped and supported in another hand. 

Jack lay there quietly, allowing his awareness to flow back into his body slowly, savoring the warmth and the sense of well-being that suffused him, relishing the simple pleasure of the feeling of the light pressure of Daniel's thumb as it gently caressed his palm. That one simple expression of affection and assurance carried more meaning for him than a thousand valiant deeds enacted in the name of another thousand noble causes. 

Finally he lifted his head from his arm. Expecting to see Daniel's hand in his own. 

One of the purple tendrils wound delicately around his hand. It was the tendril that was holding him, caressing him. From the tendril that the feeling of Daniel that had healed him had come. 

_Oh, more than that, more than that. It IS Daniel..._

"Yes, Jack." 

Jack's eye flew to the remembered face from which had come the voice he had thought he would never hear again. 

Daniel's head rested heavily in the pillow, but it was turned toward him, his eyes open and shining in a face that was still very pale but nonetheless, coming swiftly alive. Jack was so overjoyed to see him that he didn't even mind that he seemed to be seeing things. 

He had to be, what other explanation could there be for that faint purplish glow that seemed to be all around his friend.... 

Jack reached over with his free hand that he knew was trembling but he couldn't give a damn. He cupped Daniel's cheek with it, felt the welcome answering response of Daniel's actual hand encircling his wrist. Jack knew he had a grin on his face that was even sillier than the one on Daniel's. More 'I don't cares.' Who gives a rat's ass what you look like when you were having an honest-to-god 'moment'. 

"Welcome back, kid," Wow - he could actually speak. Wonder if he could play the piano too. Nah, that would probably be pushing it... 

"Glad you were here when I got back," Daniel replied, the joy on his face as great as that in his voice. "Sorry it took so long. Oh Jack, I have so much to tell you." 

"Any information you have to impart about this situation you will deliver to me, Dr Jackson. As of this moment you are formerly transferred into my custody." 

Jack's head snapped around at the first sounds of the hated voice. Sure enough, there he was, standing in the doorway, large as life and twice as slimy, complete with a brace of pet orangutans with guns. 

Maybourne. 

_Geez, they'll let anything walk the streets these day. Time to take out the trash..._

Jack bared his teeth in a menacing, feral grin. 

"Well, look what the cat dragged in. Howyadoin', Ferret Face?" 

**Part 8**

The insult had barely left Jack's lips when he was in motion, hurling himself at Maybourne; arms outstretched and fingers curling in happy anticipation of their connecting with a certain neck. This time he wouldn't let go until he felt the damned thing snap like a twig. The memories of what this crawling slug had done to Teal'c were still too fresh. Teal'c had been bad enough, but if Maybourne thought he was going to live long enough to lay one stinking finger on Daniel he had more than another thing coming. 

Jack O'Neill fully intended to see that Maybourne got everything that was coming to him. And he didn't even need a gun... 

Maybourne had an equally savage smile on his face as he calmly watched the infuriated man draw a bead on him and fire himself at him. As a matter of fact, he had the aspect of a man who had just been granted his fondest desire. 

"Thank you, Colonel," he beamed. "That is exactly what I wanted you to do." 

Maybourne's eyes went cold and dark with hate. As if they had practiced the maneuver before hand he took a quick step back and the armed men flanking him moved forward to form a barrier between him and the infuriated human projectile with murder on his mind who was speeding toward him. At the same time he barked. "Arrest that man! Cuff him, club him if you have to, I don't care, just take him down!" 

Jack was dimly aware that General Hammond, Teal'c, Sam and Janet had finally managed to push their way into the room. He didn't have any more time to spare for them; he was a man with a mission. 

Howling with rage he launched himself into the air, slamming hard into the unyielding shoulders of the two MPs in front of him, trying to use his momentum to push over and through them to get to the man they protected. As they held him fast he reached desperately past them, straining his fingers to connect with some portion of Maybourne, who had stepped back out of his reach just in time to elude his grasp. His fingers closed on empty air and he gathered himself to hurl himself yet again against the resolute wall of MP flesh that blocked his way. 

Before he could follow through on his resolve the men who held him were bearing him down to the floor. He hit hard, his head reeling as the back of it impacted with the implacable surface beneath it. They were turning him over, he felt a knee grinding savagely into the small of his back, his arms were being wrenched behind him. He struggled, kicked out, cursed. Pain erupted in his side as a very hard boot made a not-so-gentle acquaintance with that portion of his anatomy. 

But it seemed he was not the only one with problems. Off to the side he heard a man yelp with fear as, from the sounds of it, he was getting free flying lessons. Another man's terrified voice sounded on the heels of the exclamation of the pilot. 

"Christ! Harry - help me! This guy is nuts! Aaaarh!" 

That would be Teal'c. Making his own unique and humble contribution to the war effort. 

Jack was still pretty much confined to his view of the patch of the floor directly under his face seeing as how the thugs holding him seemed pretty much determined to make the side of his head well and truly one with it, but it sounded as if the room was getting pretty lively all around him. Maybourne and Hammond were yelling at each other, Sam was calling his name and probably bloodying a few noses in her efforts to get to him if he knew his feisty female teammate, and Teal'c wasn't making a sound but the men he was tossing around like toothpicks certainly were more than making up for his deficiencies in contributing to the noise level of the room. 

With all that was going on you wouldn't have thought that there was room for any more noise. Or any possibility for one voice to be heard over and above the din. But today was certainly a day for surprises and everyone in the room was about to get just about the biggest one they had ever gotten in their lives. 

Someone screamed. Janet? 

Someone else sobbed, "Oh my sweet Jesus..." 

The men who were holding him suddenly stopped struggling with him, literally freezing in mid motion. Jack couldn't see what was going on. Somebody still had their hand on his head, trying to grind his face into the floor. 

"DON'T TOUCH HIM!" 

That was Daniel's voice. But it wasn't. It was big and strange and echoed as if it was coming from the bottom of a well. It rippled through him, hummed inside him and what in the hell was going on oh crap this felt weird... 

The men who were holding him were - gone - as if they had been - yanked away. Behind him strange noises were coming from the knot of people assembled in the room. Scared noises, like they were looking at something that had just made them crap their drawers. Ohhh, he was getting a really bad feeling about this. 

Before he could put together a coherent enough impulse to start getting himself up, someone had a hold of him and was doing it for him. His head still swimming from its former attempt to mate with the floor, Jack felt himself being gently lifted from the prone position he had been forced to assume. It wasn't until he was set fully on his feet and feeling himself still supported by the unknown benefactor that had righted him that he realized that.... ohhhh crap. 

There was nobody there. Nobody beside him. Somebody had picked him up and set him on his feet and there was nobody standing within ten feet of him. Nobody except... 

_Oh my sweet Jesus is right... oh - Daniel..._

Daniel was - out of bed. On his feet, standing a few feet away from him and glowing like a big, purple light bulb. A crackling aura of snapping, rippling amethyst energy roared and pulsed around him, most strongly concentrated on the thing on his chest, which had become an almost transparent ball of whirling, turbulence. You could make out an enough of an outline of its former shape to know that it was still there, but it sure didn't look like a purple tuber anymore. 

But that isn't what scared Jack the most. Not that what he was looking at was exactly something you would see just walking down the street except for maybe possibly in LA, but the most dramatic transformation in Daniel was the one that made him want to crap his own drawers. 

Daniel's eyes were gone. Where those mild, expressive blue orbs that Jack knew so well used to reside were twin swirling vortexes of streaming, glowing brilliance. Daniel blazed with the terrible awesomeness of some sort of otherworldly avenging angel, and even though his eyes weren't his any more, you had to be a fool to look at what burned in them now not to know that he was - really pissed. 

Jack felt his legs go and didn't fall. The air was still holding him up. Sweet. 

Ya know, he should probably be getting really freaked by this. 

This sort of thing didn't happen every day. 

That was okay. As soon as he woke up, everything was going to be fine... 

Daniel had been looking at something behind him. Slowly, his head turned and Jack was subjected to the full force of that blazing, unearthly focus. A gentle smile touched Daniel's lips, an expression of tenderness that was only amplified by the incongruity of its existence on the face of a man who no longer looked even remotely human. Or as if he would need to care or concern himself with the affairs of mere mortals. 

Those same lips parted and a single word issued forth from him, uttered in the inhuman voice Daniel had used before. Only this time, the tone of that voice was very different. It was gentle, concerned, tender. Daniel said one word, as he held out his hand and began to walk toward him. 

"Jack." 

Jack couldn't see Daniel in his eyes but could hear him in his voice. He wanted to trust what his gut told him, even if the rest of him was scared so shitless that all he wanted to do was turn tail and run. But the closer Daniel got, the more the primal terror bubbled up within him. 

_Daniel is in there, Jack, you know that, Daniel would never hurt you oh my godohmygodohmygod_

Daniel reached his side and stopped. Jack flinched; willing himself not to look away from the pulsing infernos that blazed forth from where Daniel's eyes should have been. 

_no fear no fear no fear this is Daniel. Danny. Danny. Danny won't hurt me..._

"No Jack, I won't," the voice that was and yet was not Daniel's issued forth from him, still soft, still soothing. "Neither will Xi'a. Let him see me, Xi'a. Please. We are frightening him. We don't want to do that." 

Daniel reached forward and put a hand on the cheek that had been badly bruised and contused by Jack's tussle with the floor. As the glowing hand touched him Jack felt a warm tingling swarm across the skin of his face, going deep into the flesh beneath. At the same time Daniel stepped in closer and put his other hand on the back of Jack's head, to cradle the damaged place where he had lost his first battle with the floor. Again Jack felt the same heat that banished the pain and dizziness as it seeped soothingly into his skull. 

Jack closed his eyes gratefully as an infusion of vital, energizing force surged through him, seeking out every violated portion of his body, instantly making whole what had been hurt. It felt so good - so enervating, almost - orgasmic. He had never felt more alive, more connected to himself, more aware. Helluva rush. 

_Geez. Danny, if we could figure out a way to bottle this we'd make a fortune..._

A very familiar sound, close to his ear. The sound of laughter. Danny's laughter. Jack raised his head from Daniel's shoulder, where apparently it had been - whaddya know about that - and looked up to see his friend's well-remembered blue eyes shining at him with the full brilliance that was uniquely Daniel. 

"Hey Lucy, I'm home," Daniel said softly. 

Jack felt a strangled bleat of sound erupt from him that was a cross between hysterical laughter and hysterical sobbing. Which was fairly appropriate given how he was feeling. 

Daniel's eyes held him, as familiar and as welcome as the hands on his shoulders. It didn't matter what he looked like, even if he was standing there spitting purple nickels and shooting purple freaking sparks all over the freaking room this was Daniel. Jack didn't know what was going on, all he cared about was that his friend was standing here in front of him, in his right mind and apparently just fine if you were prepared to overlook the purple. Ah, what the hell, he could learn to live with it. Sometimes it just didn't get any better than this. In spite of the fact that there was a roomful of people staring at them Jack was fully prepared to slide into the comfort of yet another 'moment', but alas, such a luxury was not to be his. 

Even though it wasn't spring, the assholes were still in bloom. 

"Don't just stand there - SHOOT HIM!" 

_Maybourne? For cryin' out loud, aren't you dead yet?_

Daniel's head snapped up, his eyes disappearing in the violent resurgence of the snarling purple glow that possessed his eyesockets anew. His hand fastened around Jack's bicep in a grip that wouldn't be loosened by any force on this earth. Jack felt himself being swiftly turned around to face the crowd that was bunched together several feet away from them. The MPs were drawing their guns, fully intending to use them. Maybourne was practically hopping up and down, he was so angry, the scummy little toad-face that he was. Jack felt something cold and terrible arise within the man beside him as suddenly an equally terrible voice reverberated through the room around them. 

"YOU!" 

The amethyst blast furnace in Daniel's eyes flashed, sparks flying halfway across the room. The guns were ripped from the MPs' hands by an unseen power that hurled them against the wall with so much force that neither the weapons nor the surface they encountered were much the better for the experience. The men who held them were similarly tossed, each one impacting on different areas of different walls with enough violence to ensure that they were not going to be getting up anytime soon. 

Daniel began to stride toward Maybourne, Jack firmly in hand and in tow. Needless to say, of the people who were left standing, not one of them felt in any way inclined to offer any resistance to Daniel or any assistance to the object of his ire. 

In fact, Jack could swear that his kids, the Doc and the General were - rather looking forward to what was going to happen next. Whatever that was. 

God knows HE was... 

Daniel looked up into the air, pulling Maybourne's body skyward as he did so. The unfortunate man dangled there, his arms and legs jerking spasmodically, a broken, stringless puppet. He was sweating like a stuck pig, making funny little mewling noises while his pouchy little pig eyes darted around in terrified circles. 

God, it looked so good on him! 

Daniel continued to look up at the pathetic marionette, his face impassive and merciless, for what seemed to be an agonizing length of time. Almost as if he was trying to decide exactly - how to kill him the slowest. 

Ahh, that really would have been too much to ask for... But he could dream... 

At last Daniel spoke. Well, someone spoke, using Daniel's voice. "Daniel says that I should not kill you. He says that it is wrong to kill. Even though he can see in your mind what you planned to do to him. For Daniel's sake, I will not kill you, although you are such a thing as should not be allowed to exist. Such as you hurt me. Kept me in that place. Such as you will learn nothing and go out and hurt again. But I will not kill." 

The words continued to issue from Daniel's throat as he slowly lowered his gaze and Maybourne with it. 

"I will not kill, but understand this. It is because of Daniel that you live. That is the only reason. I see what is in your mind. I warn you. I know of you now. I know of you, and my kind will know of you as well. I will know if Daniel is harmed. If you raise a hand against him, you will wish I had killed you today. There will be no other warnings." 

Daniel abruptly took his eyes off Maybourne. Instantly released from the force that had been holding him suspended, he dropped like a stone the from the height of the few remaining feet from the floor. As soon as he was on terra firma he scuttled aside like a drunken hermit crab, looking for a hiding place. 

Daniel had closed his eyes as if in deep concentration. He was murmuring softly, as if talking to himself. Or whatever was in there with him. 

"Be calm, now, Xi'a. It's all right. Be calm. I want to talk to my friends." 

The strident clanging of the alert klaxon shattered the air around them. Jack shot a searching glance around the room. Maybourne was gone. Crap. Company's coming. 

Daniel's body jerked as he wrestled with his skittish passenger. "A moment more, Xi'a, please," he entreated. 

The General finally found his voice. "Dr Jackson, are you all right?" 

"Yes, sir," Daniel hissed between clenched teeth. "I - can't explain right now. I only have a few more minutes. It is getting very close to Xi'a's time. I have to take her home." 

"You mean to go through the Stargate?" Daniel nodded. The General frowned. "You know I can't allow that, son." 

Daniel laughed bleakly, convulsively tightening his grip on Jack's arm. "With all due respect sir," he gasped. "After what you have just seen, do you really believe you can stop me?" 

"Daniel," Sam stepped forward, deep concern in her eyes. "You have to know that Maybourne is going to try. By now he'll have armed men three foot deep every single step of the way between here and the Stargate." 

Daniel's struggle to stay in control was becoming noticeably more difficult with every passing moment. "Believe me, Sam, I am much more worried about what Xi'a will do to them than what they could possibly do to me. Now please, listen to me, all of you. I haven't got much time. Thank you for everything you have done. I thank you, and Xi'a would like to thank you as well. Don't be worried about me, I'll be fine. She won't let anything happen to me. I have to go now, but I promise I'll be back. I'll explain everything to you then. Just, stay well until we get back." 

Daniel gasped and was gone. The inhuman glow was ascendant in his eyes once more; the corona that surrounded him flared so strongly that the group about him took several hasty steps backward. 

Daniel's head turned, the furnace-glare trained fully upon Jack. Daniel's mouth opened once more, and the voice that poured from his throat was farther from his own, more alien and unreal than it had ever been. 

"Take me home, Jack?" She asked him. 

"Sure thing, Xi'a," he replied without even pausing to think about it. 

"Already packed. Thought you would never ask." 

**Part 9**

They hadn't gone ten feet down the corridor when they met the first wave of armed resistance. 

An even dozen marines lined up all the way across the corridor, assault weapons at the ready and pointed straight at them. Oh look, there was that new guy, what was his name, Albertson? Had seen him in town last week when he had gone into that new place to grab a cold one and just - hang out. Albertson had been there with a couple of buddies and had sent him over a beer - even got the brand right - gave him points for that one. Heard his buddies razzing him about sucking up to the colonel. 

Now here the guy was pointing a gun at his heart with every intention of using it if he was ordered to. Jack sighed. Ain't life grand... When it didn't positively suck. 

One of the men was barking something at them. Who was that, what the hell was his name - Jack, what does it MATTER - focus already! 

"Colonel O'Neill, begging your pardon, Sir, but I have orders to take both you and Doctor Jackson into custody. I am respectfully requesting that you surrender, Sir. Right now. I have to advise you that if you don't, my orders are very clear." 

Out of the corner of his eye Jack could see that the man beside him was drawing himself up as if preparing to do - God only knew what. Or maybe that should be the whatever that was inside the man beside him. Ah, where was that scorecard when you needed it... 

Jack could feel Daniel's hand tightening on his arm in anticipation of Xi'a's next move as Jack hurried to address the man who had challenged them. 

"I'm sure they are, soldier, and may I say, that your request was very, very nicely phrased. I'll be sure to mention that in my report. Nothing would make me happier than to not have to make you try to shoot me - try being the operative word here, take my word for it - but I gotta tell you - it isn't up to me. She - ah - he has somewhere to go, I have to help them get there, and if you know what's good for you, you will take my advice and get out of the way. Now. Cause THEY don't have a lot of patience with jarheads who stick guns in their faces and trust me, you don't WANT to piss them off." 

"You are refusing to surrender?" 

Thick or what. Must be a college graduate. Shit, he had to get these jiggerheads to move; Daniel was about to go off. 

"What - you want it in writing or something? Hell yeah! Now get the hell out of the way! Not kidding here, you are about 30 seconds away from being the first Marines on the Moon!" 

He turned to spare a hurried glance at Daniel, to see his friend's face looking back at him, Xi'a riding in the driver's seat. She looked at him, forming Daniel's features into an expression of the pure, primal anticipation of intended future mayhem. It was a savagely compelling, wild expression made all the more exciting by how alien it was to Daniel's normal range of expression. 

In spite of himself, Jack felt his heart leap in a resonant pulse of pure, anarchistic joy. Oh, he might never have seen it on Daniel's face before, but he knew that look. He had seen it looking back at him in his mirror enough times. He knew in that instant he could really, really get to like Xi'a. 

_Oh my, a wo - ah - whatever - after my own heart..._

Daniel's features instantly resolved themselves into an expression of blinding pleasure. "Watch this, Jack," Xi'a said archly as she twisted Daniel's lips into a deeply satisfied smile. 

Xi'a laughed and an explosion of energy surged forth blowing the line of men before them off their feet and flinging them the full length of the corridor like dead leaves caught helplessly in a sudden squall. Each in their turn they impacted against the wall with sickening thuds, fell to the ground and did not move. Xi'a gave his arm an excited squeeze and began to sprint down the corridor, drawing him along with her, a willing accomplice to the roller coaster ride that was only beginning. 

Xi'a was smoking and there wasn't anything or anyone that was slowing her down. They careened swiftly through the silo, making unerringly for the embarkation room, heedlessly scattering the men in their path like so many tenpins. With about as much consideration as one would give to a piece of wood that one was seeking to knock over with a bowling ball. 

Jack was more than loving every minute of it - he was literally transported with ecstasy. Maybe it was some weird reaction to all those hours of feeling like about as useful as a piece of dog crap scraped off the bottom of a someone's shoe, but he had never, ever felt a rush like this. The power that poured from Daniel's body coursed through his own, lighting every synapse, firing his nerve endings, filling his veins with fire and the exhilaration of knowing that they could do - ANYTHING - and nothing could stop them. No dog-faced, paper-pushing, pencil-necked, no-brained bureaucratic shit head could push HIM around. If revenge was sweet than by God he was going into insulin shock. 

By the time they hit the last set of blast doors, the ones that would allow them admittance to the embarkation room itself the resistance was getting pretty token. Guess the body count behind them had finally become impressive enough to get the point across. Xi'a was preparing herself to take out the last obstacle when suddenly, Jack felt the presence of someone they both seemed to have forgotten in their intoxicating orgy of marine-bashing. 

_Jack - don't do this. Don't let her hurt any more people. It isn't right. You know that. Please, Jack._

Daniel! The insertion of Daniel's quiet, calming thoughts into the power-mad maelstrom of his mind was like a bucket of arctic ice water thrown all over him, drenching him to the bone. Soaking some sense into him. Better late than never... 

Jesus, what had he been THINKING of? What the hell was the matter with him? Those men were colleagues, friends, fellow soldiers and officers he had fought with, served with, stood shoulder to shoulder with and he had LAUGHED when they had fallen before them. 

_Power, Jack. Cuts both ways. We've done a lot of harm. We can't leave until we put it right._

Jack shook his head, emerging from the power-drunk dream that had briefly but terrifyingly possessed him. All he could think was to thank God that Xi'a was living in Daniel's head and not his own, because if not for his friend's - self-control and innate goodness - who knew what kind of further unbridled mayhem would have ensued. 

He also knew that when he got back and got a moment he was going to have to start working on the part of himself he just got a look at here today... 

He looked into the blazing eyes that usurped Daniel's to see an answering sense of shame within. 

"Can you do what he says, kid?" Jack asked her. "Can you fix those guys we threw around?" 

"Yes Jack, I can," she answered in a very quiet voice. "Now I know why it was intended that the a'tah should last for many, many passings of the seasons. The body is a wondrous thing and the power - fearsome and tempting - if you do not have the training..." 

Jack had no idea what she was talking about; he just wanted to somehow undo everything that had happened in the last - however long it had been since they had been cracking backs against walls and loving it. 

Something he couldn't see but definitely could feel rolled out from Xi'a and flowed down the corridor behind them. Jack was quite content to stand there hating himself while she did her work. 

_She was very young when she was taken and she has been alone, scared and hurting for a very long time. She doesn't understand - about a lot of things. She just wanted to please you. It's not your fault. Her enthusiasm is very - overwhelming._

She didn't overwhelm YOU, my friend. 

I've had a little more time to get used to her - personality. That's all. 

You're never gonna leave me alone to be happy to think the worst of myself, are you, Danny? 

'Fraid not. Deal with it, O'Neill. 

A sudden squeeze of his arm brought him back to normal awareness. He didn't know how much time had passed, but it seemed that Xi'a was ready to move on. 

"It's done. Their bodies have been repaired and they will not remember what I did to them," she said to Jack as she lifted Daniel's arm and placed his hand on the blast door. As soon as she touched it, it was just - gone. The path to the embarkation room was clear. 

They walked inside, striding toward the Stargate, which was already activated, awaiting them. Jack looked around, slightly stunned by the bizarre tableau that presented itself to his astonished eyes. 

There was a last line of defense blocking the ramp to the Gate. Yet another line of armed soldiers doing their duty, waiting there in the last valiant attempt to keep them from escaping. And lookee, lookee, there was Maybourne, right there in for no doubt what he hoped would be the kill. 

Some people just never learn. 

It wasn't bizarre that they were standing there; that much was only to be expected. What was whacked was that they were all - standing there. Not moving. Staring. Completely frozen. Jack looked up at the Control Room. Man, same deal up there. Everybody was making like their favorite impression of a store mannequin. 

Feeling more than slightly like a schmuck as comprehension dawned, Jack turned to favor Xi'a with a more than slightly accusatory look. 

"So tell me, could you have done this all along?" 

Xi'a looked back at him with one of Daniel's best completely abashed expressions. 

"Yes," she answered in the otherworldly alien-voice equivalent of a thoroughly young and thoroughly contrite child. 

"So - we could have gotten here without - all that other stuff?" He pressed, knowing he was really more honked off at himself for encouraging than at her for actually doing. 

"Yes." Unbelievably, the answering voice was even smaller and even more like that of a child. 

Crap. He couldn't stay mad at her any more than he could stay mad at Daniel. Especially when the fault was really his because of the two of them he was the one who should have known better. 

_Yes..._

Another country heard from. Okay Daniel, point taken. Let's just get the hell out of here and sort the whole thing out later. Thank god nobody was going to remember anything about any of this... 

Except him. 

And of course, Daniel. 

"Ready Jack?" Xi'a's eyes were glued to the Gate, and he could feel the excitement within her beginning to grow, spilling out and over him once more. She was finally going home... 

"Ready -" he started to say, and then cut himself off. Just one more little piece of business to take care of before leaving. 

He held up a hand to stop her and for the first time endeavored to separate his arm from her clasp. "Just, one little second. Won't take a minute. Something I have to do." 

Chuckling under his breath Jack scooted over to Maybourne's side, knelt beside him and quickly knotted his shoelaces together. He heard both Daniel and Xi'a laughing behind him as he straightened up and made his way back to them. 

He was never quite sure where it came from and he could never get a straight answer out of Daniel about it, but the suddenly, an extremely vivid image of Maybourne standing there with his trousers around his ankles popped into his thoughts. 

"Tempting, but no. A little too over-the-top. Let's get the hell out of here before I change my mind." 

It was absolute night on the other side of the gate, a night violent with a raging, howling wind that threatened to pull him off his feet before he had a chance to orient himself. 

The Stargate in this strange place where they had come rested in the hollow of a crater-like depression with gracefully sloping sides. While Jack struggled to stay on his feet and get his bearings Daniel tore from his side and ran to the top where they stood on the crest, arms spread wide and head thrown back in an ecstatic expression of joy, Daniel's half-naked form eerily illuminated and starkly delineated within the alien aura that surrounded him. 

Abruptly separated from the influence of the energy that he had recently been a part of, Jack felt wrenchingly alone, suddenly smaller and infinitely overwhelmed by the terrifying spectacle of the sudden magnificent stranger who shimmered above him. 

Daniel was some wild, unfathomable thing again, an awful, god-like incomprehensible entity that could very well just as soon squash him as look at him. And in that vulnerable moment of beholding the vision before him, and feeling himself full of every single way in which he had ever failed him, slighted and disappointed him, Jack could think of far many more reasons why Daniel should, than he shouldn't. 

The blazing corona played across Daniel's naked back, caressing the muscles that rippled beneath his skin as he raised his arms above him as if seeking to embrace the sky. The wind screamed, Daniel laughed, the enveloping aura that cocooned him made his body starkly shine with impossible perfection. 

They turned back to face him and Jack took several drunken steps backward, viscerally struck by a sight that was even more terrifying. 

Daniel had resided in the background of a mind dominated by Xi'a's bloodlust. 

Now that she was home and happy and full of the full power of what she purely was Daniel was right out there with her and as far away from what he really was as he had ever been. 

There was almost nothing left of the man he knew and understood that was not fully entwined with this creature that was taking him away from his own humanity before Jack's horrified eyes. 

Mother of God, what was he looking at? What was happening here? 

Daniel's chaotic locks streamed about his enraptured visage, the planes of his face etched alabaster in the heart of the inferno. His muscular chest heaved, his throat pulsed, his body sang with the thrum of absolute power. 

Jack was deeply afraid. He had good reason to be. Not so lately he had himself drunk very shallowly of the same cup that now offered his friend the unbridled opportunity to drain it to its very dregs. Jack was only too well aware what use he had made of his own opportunity. 

Power cuts both ways? Oh Daniel, are you as good at following your own wisdom as you are at offering it? 

Jack took another step back, groping blindly behind him for the Dial Home Device. Just in case... Just in case... 

The beautiful, terrible head began to move, looking down. Down at the man quaking in his boots at the bottom of the bowl. Down at him. That face he used to know so well and hold so dear and now was so afraid of wore an expression he had never seen and did not have the slightest notion of how to interpret. Those sculptured, power-encased arms came down to extend themselves outward toward him in an open-handed gesture that could have been as much a preparation to strike him down as anything else. 

Daniel closed his eyes and dipped his head, as if gathering himself for - 

Jack closed his eyes and prepared to die. 

They were startled back open by the very, very familiar sound of Daniel's infectious laughter. 

"Jack," he said shaking his head. "Honestly I really don't know where you get some of your ideas. Stop standing there like an idiot and get up here! We've got a long way to go." 

Jack couldn't think, couldn't speak, but found he certainly could move. Pulled up the slope by the irresistible combination of the power of the man before him and the power of his own relief that his friend was still his friend, Jack scrambled up the short rise and stood once more at Daniel's side. 

Daniel/Xi'a' smiled at him as they held out their hand to him. "Come home with me," they said. 

"Where?" Jack blurted out dumbly. 

They indicated the darkness beyond them with a sweep of Daniel's other arm. "Out there. Home." 

Jack's eyes followed the indicator of Daniel's hand across what appeared to be a vastly empty expanse of rough rocky wilderness. A stark, alien landscape that stretched unchanging as far as the eye could see and well beyond until at last the monotony was broken by a distant range of mountains that marred the pristine line of the horizon with their jutting impudence. 

"There?" Jack gaped. "You mean, out - THERE there? All the way out THERE?" 

"All the way home." Daniel/Xi'a laughed at his disbelief as they continued to hold their hand out to him, inviting him to take it. 

Just like Daniel. He would only ask, but he wouldn't compel. Wouldn't make Jack do something he didn't want to do. 

"Don't worry, we'll be there before you know it. Coming, Jack?" 

Jack answered him by taking the final step and putting his hand in the one that had been offered him. Once more, the power infused him, swirled through him, once more he was drawn into the synergy that was Daniel/Xi'a which now became Daniel/Jack/Xi'a. Once more he understood that all was well, all had always been well, and as he did his groundless fear completely evaporated. 

"Well, what are we waiting for?" He grinned at them. "Let's motor." 

Their hands as tightly entwined as their minds and hearts, they hurled themselves wantonly into the long, dark, savage night. 

**Part 10**

His feet were winged and with Daniel beside him he raced on the very teeth of the wind. Effortlessly they surged forward, their strides devouring the rough and obstacle-laden landscape as if it did not exist, hurtling through the darkness at an impossible, utterly intoxicating velocity. What they streaked past was no more than a streaming blur on the periphery of Jack's vision on the one side; on the other side flew the man who coursed with him transfixed in the ecstasy of the near omnipotence that impelled both of them irresistibly forward. 

Jack thought his heart would burst with the swelling joy of the feeling of that power - this time used not to hurt but to exalt in the sheer wonder of existence and the ability simply to be in a pure moment of the most perfect execution of being. For that is what they were- perfect. Focussed, directed, racing toward their single united desire in a union of optimum expression. There was no single thing that needed to be added to what already was. Nor anything that could be taken from it that would make it less than it was. 

They ran, long, joyous and heedless, through the night, miles melting beneath their unflagging feet as if the distance they traversed did not exist. Jack found that his mind no longer had any problem with the idea that his hand was tightly clasped by an unshod half-naked god who was propelling them both forward into that which just was not possible. Possible or not, it was happening, wasn't it? 

Roads? Where they were going, who needed roads? 

Jack let his mind get as into it as deep as the rest of him, knowing that he no longer had the slightest thing to fear from or about Daniel. He didn't understand why or how it was possible - didn't understand how anyone could be doing what he was doing - feel what he was feeling - be what he now was - and not get twisted, caught up by it and consumed. But Daniel was okay. He could feel it. He could feel Daniel. Oh, sure, he was grooving on it, well, who wouldn't - but as they continued to run together through the darkness, little by little, more and more of Daniel came over to the Jack side of the spectrum. The closer they drew to the mountains the more Jack felt of Daniel, and the less of Xi'a. 

It was an almost imperceptible difference, but nevertheless, it was noticeable to Jack, and as the night wore on he found himself trying to figure out why. Why the shift? Why the change? What was Daniel doing? 

And then, with a humbling realization, Jack knew. Humbling that Daniel would trust him that much, humbling that he would think Jack possessed anything inside him that would have been of use to him in what he was trying to do. 

Daniel was literally anchoring his consciousness to Jack's, tying the very foundation of his own humanity to that of his friend in order to not get lost, swept up and away into Xi'a siren song of power. He was trusting Jack to keep him grounded to himself so the very thing that Jack had been afraid of back there - would not happen to him. He was trusting Jack to be a bastion to which he could affix himself so he would not succumb to the frenzy and madness of absolute power. 

He was doing so with the unshakable assurance and the unbreakable faith that Jack would be able to be this bastion for him. 

Hours ago Jack had faltered before this man he had called his friend, actually believing him capable of killing him. Now, one who had more power than any human being had ever dreamed of and the unfettered opportunity to do whatever he wished with it was placing his very soul and humanity in his care. Trusting completely that his friend - wouldn't let him down. 

If it took him the rest of his life, Jack vowed that one day he really was going to deserve the faith that Daniel had him. Well, it started, right here and now. 

_Don't sweat it, Danny, I've got you and I'm not letting go._

The dark void of night was beginning to imperceptibly attenuate with the introductory infusions of incipient dawn. The lunar landscape they had been leaping over was giving way to rolling foothills and although still many miles distant, the reality of the mountains they were aiming for filled the world and sky in front of them. Jack did not notice any change in their pace or the ease with which he was able to move, but he began to feel a bit of a tremor in the hand that held him. 

Something had happened. Something had changed. The shift was so gradual that Jack almost missed it, but because of the effect it began to have on Daniel, it soon became impossible to ignore. 

What continued to be effortless for him no longer seemed to be so for his friend. 

Daniel was noticeably laboring now; his chest was heaving with exertion, his visage and eyes drawn with concentration, his face and torso becoming slick with sweat. Still they continued, not stopping, not slacking, surging resolutely forward, it would seem now, solely on the force of Daniel's will and determination. 

Jack felt helpless - wishing there was something he could do. He tried to suggest that they slow down only to be answered by the vehement shaking of Daniel's head and a mental flash 'no time'. Something was about to happen, they had to get to somewhere in the mountains before it did, and because it was starting to happen it wasn't as easy for Daniel to do what he had been doing. 

That was all the explanation Daniel could spare him, every ounce of his concentration went back to getting them where they were going. This didn't make Jack very happy, but that seemed to be the way it had been with a lot of things in his life, and he had had just about as much say in it then as he did now. 

Jack just prayed, for his friend's sake, that they were able to get where they were going in time. Damned mountains still seemed a long way off. For what little it probably was worth, Jack tried his damnedest to send what mental support and encouragement he could Daniel's way. Maybe he couldn't do much but he damned well could do all that he could. 

Daniel gave a huge gasp, stumbled and almost fell. Jack instinctively grabbed him, seeking to support him, at the same time feeling the dispensation that had given him the ability to transcend all that was possible starting to falter as well. 

Crap, they weren't going to make it.... 

Almost the same time that thought formed in his head every other thing that was in there was flattened into the outer perimeter of his brain case by a searing mental scream that they must have heard half way across the galaxy. It was Xi'a - and whoever she was calling, she meant to be heard. 

_K'HAYA! HELP US!_

His brain completely pureed by Xi'a's panic, Jack felt himself falling. All he was aware of, dimly beyond the periphery of the mental pain, was the fact that somehow, he still had a hold of Daniel. Or was it that Daniel had a hold of him? Fine time to get dogmatic. Whichever it was, it all worked out the same. He was also trying to keep a hold of his consciousness when all at once there was a whirl and rush of sound and whispering, gentle voices and - oh my time to sleep now... 

The very next thing Jack felt was Daniel's hand clamped around his forearm with about as much vehemence as he had a hold of his. Then awareness slammed back into him abruptly, forcing an involuntary, startled cry from him. He was lying on his back, his left arm; the one that was gripped by Daniel extended toward his friend, who was also flat out, but on his face. Ground felt nice and soft underneath him, rather cushiony and supporting. Not at all like the rocky surface that had been under their feet the last time the world had come crashing in on him. 

Ah Geez Louise, where the hell were they now.... 

Jack sat up to find his immediate need to check out his environment completely arrested by a close encounter he had not been expecting. 

He and Daniel were surrounded by a ring of little guys wearing long white dresses. They were cute as buttons, with pale blue skin, long white hair and large glowing yellow eyes and they all looked at him with similar benign, almost indulgent expressions. As Jack gaped they bowed as one, and then began to advance toward them. 

Jack had no fear, no concern as he watched several of the delicate beings kneel down beside Daniel, gently uncouple their grip and give Jack his arm back, gently turn Daniel over and lay their hands upon him. He didn't know what they were doing, but whatever it was, he knew they meant him no harm. That they were helping. 

Then he became aware of the hands that were on him, helping him to his feet. Unwilling to take his gaze off Daniel and yet unable to resist the sudden compulsion to do so, he turned his head until his eyes became locked to the being who stood directly in front of him. 

He must have been the boss or something; he was wearing a large medallion that the others did not have. Jack found he could not focus on it, the man before him, holding his eyes was talking to him. 

Sort of. It was a mental contact, but completely unlike the rapport he had shared with both Daniel and Xi'a. When they had 'spoken' to him, he had heard it as words, sentences, separate, tangible thoughts, the same way you hear the little voice in your head talking when you are thinking things over or giving yourself shit. 

But this was different. This guy was talking in big-picture; entire concepts, whole massive chunks of information that were filling his consciousness faster than he could sort it all out. It took mere moments for Tir - that was his name - Tir - to explain - everything to him. What this place was, what was going on, what was about to happen. It was all in there, Jack knew he had it. He just didn't know what he had. 

Somehow Tir made him understand that it would come. He just had to relax and let it happen. 

Oh, and he was SO good at that... 

Meaning to heave a snort of disgust he looked away, and in so doing finally saw where they were. 

And then almost fell back down on his keister in awe and disbelief. 

They were in an enormous cavern inside one of the mountains. Well, what looked like what was left of one. Once upon a time it had been a volcano, but now the shattered and jagged fragments of what remained after the last time it had blown its top framed and protected a verdant Eden nestled in what had once been the heart of the inferno. 

There was a profusion of wildly exotic plants all about this alien bower. The ground underfoot was completely covered with a deep, springy substance like moss that one sank comfortingly into at every step, and the walls of the cavern were also barely visible beneath the covering of tangled vines and flowers that clung to them. Warm, brilliant sunlight streamed unchecked and caressingly through the opening above, generously bathing the bower with its life-giving radiance. The air was fresh and fragrant, heavy with the scents of life and the he could almost swear the small sounds of lilting - voices. 

Jack's delighted eyes continued to scan the cavern, taking in the huge stone staircase that dominated the centre of the bower. It rose, arching gradually, at least sixty feet up into the air, and terminated itself in a large platform that jutted out into the air free of any base or pedestal support. Interesting. He almost knew what it was there for, almost had it - and then he saw - the trees. 

Well, they weren't quite trees - trees couldn't wave their - uh branches - on their own, but other than that, they looked like trees. They were by far the most prevalent type of plant in this place. Huge, slender and graceful, swaying rhythmically back and forth, waving their long, sinuous limbs gently... 

Oh wow, that's where the voices were coming from. Damned trees were singing! There were a bunch of blue guys looking after them too, stroking them, cleaning them or - feeding them or something - paying particular attention to those purplish pod-like things that were clustered in bunches around the bases of most of them.... 

Hel-lo, I think we just found out where Xi'a came from now... 

That stuff that Tir had put in his head was getting closer. But it could wait. He had to see how Daniel was. 

He turned back to Daniel, who still lay on the ground being ministered to by the rest of the K'Haya. That's who they were, the guardians of the Place of Beginning, Joining and Becoming. Which is what this place was. 

Cool, maybe Tir knew what he was talking about after all. 

Feeling insufferably pleased he knelt beside one of the K'Haya to see for himself that Daniel was all right. The little blue guy looked at him as he joined their ranks, smiled, patted him a little fondly on the arm, nodded and then went back to what he was doing. 

Nice people. Quiet, but nice. 

Daniel looked okay. Well - better than he had before. His eyes were closed, but his breathing was deep and regular, that was good, that was good. Didn't seem to be in any pain, even better. He was still glowing, but the glow seemed to be moving away from his extremities, rolling inward and more centrally focussed on his torso area, becoming more and more concentrated on the almost completely transparent being he once thought was a tuber and who he now knew as Xi'a who was still hitching a ride on Daniel's chest even though you could hardly see her anymore. Some of the K'Haya fussed over Daniel, rubbing his arms, face and chest, making small, soothing noises as they did so. The others held their hands over the swirling, growing knot of brilliance that was Xi'a - coming back into herself, preparing to become. 

Why did he suddenly not like the sound of that? Why was he suddenly afraid of what this was going to do to Daniel? Jack ground his teeth in frustration as he rooted around in his brain trying to come up with what he knew that would give him the answers he desperately needed to have. 

What were these little blue guys doing anyway? They were holding something back - trying to stop it? Why? They were worried about something. 

Flashes of knowledge darting in front of his inner eye, teasing him, daring him to try and claim them. 

_The three ages Beginning - what she had been Joining - a'tah - what she was now Becoming - S'il- what she would be when she - left him..._

Suddenly, Jack understood. What was going to happen. Why the K'Haya were so worried. Not for Xi'a. She was safe now, she was home. Any moment the S'il would be here to witness her ascension to their midst, to welcome home safe and well that part of them that had been stolen away from them so long ago. Xi'a would become, as it had always been, and the K'Haya were here, as they always had been, to welcome into their midst another of the bonded, one who had been honored to have been the vessel of a'tah for one of the thrice born ones, forever changed and made greater than he was as a compensation and recompense for the years he had unselfishly shared his vessel and by so doing so enabled another S'il to become. 

But Daniel was not of the K'Haya. Xi'a might have reached out to him and chosen him, but they had not spent years together in a'tah as they should have. The melding of consciousness that was thrust upon him and alteration of his body into the kind of one that Xi'a had needed from her a'tah in order to effect her personal transformation had taken place in mere hours - not years. The biological changes she had inflicted in Daniel in order to be able to bond with him and use his body had been roughly and brutally made by a frightened, lonely, deeply deprived and immature entity desperate to stop hurting, to have the communion that she needed in order to survive, develop and get home. 

Xi'a had not meant to hurt Daniel. But when he found her and set her free she had been half-mad with fear and loneliness. In her desperate relief she had literally clamped onto him and had taken everything she could get as fast as she could. She had not meant to hurt him; in spite of the way it looked, Jack knew this. He had had Xi'a in his head, he knew that although she needed some time to get a few more ground rules down, she truly cared about Daniel. Hell, he could say it. She loved him. Jack knew he could forgive her for what she had done because of that one fact, just as Daniel had already done. 

No malice, only terrible loneliness and pain. She had been nearly insane, driven by the blind need to survive and stop hurting. Jack knew he could certainly relate to that one. As could his entirely too compassionate and much too willing to help and give friend which was exactly why they were in this mess. Well, that was all well and good for Xi'a, she was going to be becoming something pretty spectacular pretty soon, her worries were almost over. What about Daniel? 

No one here had the first clue. Nothing like this had ever happened before. Compared to the gentle, gradual process of intertwining and bonding that the a'tah was supposed to be what Daniel had been subjected to, however unwitting or unintentional, was a mental and biological violation that was almost akin to - rape. And no one here knew what that would mean for Daniel. Although it seemed that maybe Tir had a few ideas... 

However, none of them seemed exceedingly optimistic, encouraging or particularly conducive to Daniel's continued state of good mental health and general psychological well being. 

He would become one of 'bonded' - retain the psychic link to Xi'a and the enhanced psi abilities that she had awakened within him. Possible, but Tir didn't think it was very likely. Daniel wasn't of their race, the K'Harra - from whom the K'Haya came. He had not evolved as a member of that symbiotic race and therefore his brain was not properly structured or developed to be able to retain the abilities. Well, wasn't that special? Scratch door number one. 

He would return to the way he was, but would go insane because of the psychic shock of being separated from Xi'a. 

The most probably outcome. 

That sucked even more. Jack didn't like door number two either. 

He would return to the way he was, but he wouldn't go insane. Somehow, he would find a way to survive. 

Would be nice, but Tir didn't give it much of a chance. 

That was only because he didn't know our Daniel the way Jack knew him. 

Door number three was the one. 

Had to be had to be, Jack wouldn't allow for the possibility of anything else. 

Nor would he allow anything else to happen. Period. 

_Okay Danny, you've gone to hell and back for me enough times, it's finally my turn. Don't worry, my friend, we're both walking out of this together. You have my word on it._

Jack suddenly came back to where he was, as the air began to visibly shimmer with a soft, beautiful trilling that filled the fragrant air of the crater and the souls of everyone who was in it. Immediately the little blue guys closed their eyes, held their hands up and then turned rapt and transformed faces skyward. 

Jack looked up, trying to see what all the fuss was about. 

Oh my - the S'il were here.... 

**Part 11**

...The stars were falling down from the sky. And they were singing... 

If love had a sound and a taste and a feeling then it was pouring all about him, filling him, singing inside him as the S'il descended from the infinite to welcome into their midst another of their own. 

A cluster of sparkling, exquisite, scintillating clouds that were all one and yet distinctly different twinkling manifestations of the ethereal wafted majestically down through the open portal of the mountain, hovering above their heads, surpassing the sunlight and paling every rainbow that had every dared to exist with their palpable brilliance and magnificent hues. The K'Haya sighed deeply with the ecstasy of their presence, moving as one toward the centre of the bower. They ringed the stairwell, still looking up, the atmosphere of the garden suddenly significant with hushed awe and reverent expectation. Above them the S'il pulsed and sparkled, the delicate colours of the entities in the cloud mingling and deepening as each one of the hovering entities in its turn mentally greeted and attuned to the respective K'Haya who had been its a'tah. 

Jack knew somehow that the S'il did not come home often, but when they did, it was well worth the wait. 

Jack hovered between being pulled to be part of that graced assemblage and knowing that he had no place there. What he felt inside him just by being in the fallout threatened to bring him to his knees beneath the weight of the rapture that pressed upon him. He fought off an illogical, irresistible impulse to take off his shoes. 

Jack could only stand there staring dumbly, as slowly, moving in an almost dream-like dance of perfection, Xi'a got to her feet. Oh, this was Xi'a. No doubt of that. She might be wearing Daniel's body for just a little longer, but as he watched her float across the verdant carpet toward the - ramp to heaven - he had no doubt who he was watching. Daniel had never in his life moved like that. Holy - he was almost getting USED to this.... 

He watched in stunned admiration as Xi'a flowed gracefully forward, her every movement a studied homage to the body she would soon be departing from. The last gesture of respect; the parting gift to the vessel that would soon no more be hers. To use it as perfectly and as beautifully as she was able, one last time. 

_Bye, kid. Take care of yourself..._

He hadn't meant to - hadn't thought she could still hear him, now that they - weren't - anymore. But suddenly, not quite halfway up the stairs, she halted, faltered, half turned to look straight at him and nail him right between the eyes with a look that near melted the soles of his boots. 

Well, it was not as if Xi'a had done anything yet the way she was supposed to why the heck should she start now? 

"JACK!" She sobbed and began to fling herself back down the stairs at him, her arms outstretched. 

Part of her reached him before the rest of her did. Suddenly what was in his mind overrode the information conveyed to his brain by his eyes, and for the first time when he looked since this whole menage a deux and sometime trois had started, all he saw was - XI'A. 

He saw within, in a supernatural state of awareness, with feelings and emotions and smells and sensations and the firing of all the senses the most beautiful woman he had every seen or felt or had ever dreamed existed she was Xi'a and yet the pure essence of all that was woman and female and yet ohmygod so much more and how was this happening it was almost more than his senses could bear and just when he thought he would be consumed by this most exquisite burning there was more twin flames that whirled about him as arms of fire enfolded him fire seared his chest and inflamed his heart a font of fire burning mouth engulfing his own... 

_I love you Xi'a/Jack/love/Daniel/you/Xi'a I love you...._

...I am he and he is me and we are all together burning whirling never be this way again moments before good-bye one last gift to the most beloved... 

Jack thought he had had it all, been all that Daniel/Xi'a were and knew when he had been joined to them before, but suddenly they opened onto him fully - what all of Xi'a could be, and what she was becoming. 

Suddenly he was huge, bigger than his body, and getting bigger all the time as his awareness swelled, moving outward, far beyond the room that formerly held him but could no longer, far beyond the mountain, the sky, the planet, the stars, farther still, spreading out farther and farther, touching - everything all at once, distinct and yet a part of the all his consciousness unique and yet somehow simultaneously aware of everything that was. He saw, he knew, understood - for just an instant touched - 

_good-bye..._

\- slipping through his fingers that taste of all-that-was the answers the understanding the being falling back getting smaller so small, so alone gone, all gone they were gone... 

Shuddering, bereft, empty, Jack opened his eyes to see Xi'a running back up the stairs, almost to the top. Anguished and desolate, he felt the invitation and stumbled forward to join the K'Haya, his eyes never leaving the figure now standing on top of the platform. 

There were gentle, caring hands upon him, soothing sensations in his mind, assuaging the hurt, pushing away the barrenness, easing the wrenching loneliness, helping him come to terms with having to be only what he had ever always been once again. As he watched Xi'a's becoming begin, enough of the shock of their final departure had been taken from him to enable him to realize that she had left him with one final assurance. 

There was a door number four. 

Knowing what it would mean for her even in the face of what it would mean for Daniel, Jack had no idea whether to be happy or afraid. 

Or which of his friends he wanted most - to be saved. 

He could feel the level of excitement and awe in the room jump off the scale. The S'il descended lower. It was happening! 

The aura that had surrounded Daniel for so long was completely gone. Everything that was Xi'a was now concentrated in a single vortex of brilliance over his heart. It rested there, for the briefest of moments and then surged out and up and away from him, as Xi'a at last became, transforming, shrugging off her final need for the body that had sheltered her, flowing gloriously upward toward those beings above her that she was now one of. 

She was so beautiful. Light and colour and swirling, animated brilliance, riding the air just above Daniel's head. The welcoming song of the S'il vibrated through Jack as it did all the K'Haya about him, and it pulled her too, he could see it in the way the lights in the cloud that was now Xi'a quivered and pulsed. 

But she did not go up and away to join them and Jack knew why. He didn't need to look up at Daniel to know why either, but he did anyway. 

Daniel stood there, head bowed, hands splayed across his bare chest, rubbing the bare skin under his hands with slow, confused movements. Then his head flew up, his features distorted with an expression of such unbearable pain and loss that Jack wanted to avert his eyes. Daniel's mouth gaped open as if he meant to scream, but no sound came out. Pinioned by the sight, paralyzed by fear, Jack wanted to move but could not make his body respond. He stood, watching helplessly, as Daniel's legs crumbled beneath him and he began to fall. 

He did not reach the ground. The amethyst miasma that had been hovering just above him swooped down the instant Daniel began to topple, encircling his body, buoying him up, supporting him and setting him back on his feet as it wound caressingly about his body. As the new S'il Xi'a flowed about him the pain on Daniel's face visibly eased, to be gradually replaced by a look of awe and sorrow. 

Door number four. He'd figured it out. Shit damn hell and shit again. 

Overhead, the song of the S'il faltered and the nebulous beings shivered as they too realized what Xi'a meant to do. The little guys around him were shaking their heads, wringing their little hands in distress and Jack could feel his own guts twisting in knots as he felt himself equally pulled in both directions, not knowing which way he wanted it to go. Yet. 

Above them Xi'a flittered about Daniel's form, billowing and winding sinuously about his limbs and body as she sought to encase him in the assurance of her love and devotion. Tears shone in Daniel's eyes, his face was soft with compassion as he reached out his hand to touch her shimmering surface and then folded his arms to his chest as if by doing so he could clasp her to him as well. His eyes closed and he wavered, even in the midst of her support, as the magnitude of what she offered him overwhelmed him. 

Door number 4. Xi'a forsakes what she is. Doesn't go with the S'il out into the infinite, out into space and time and forever which is her place and where she belongs. Doesn't fly free and boundless with the gods and the universe. She stays right here, tied to the earth, with Daniel, never leaving him, protecting him from the consequences of what she did to him in order to atone for having hurt him. Not just that though. Not just because she owes him one, although she certainly does. Mainly she wants to stay with him because she loves him. 

Seems their little friend had picked up a thing or two during her stay in Daniel's mind. Jack had to admit, her really liked her style. 

For what seemed to be forever and then some, the matter hung between them. Jack waited, the K'Haya waited, the S'il waited in an agony of anticipation. 

It was not a done deal, not by a longshot. Well, where Daniel was involved, big surprise. Daniel stood, very still, his arms still folded across his chest, his eyes closed, Xi'a swirling about him faster, her colour deepening, flashing, sparking. 

All of a sudden Jack knew. Knew what he wanted. As much as he cared about Xi'a, he was too afraid of the alternative. He remembered all too well what the final separation had done to him, and he had only been a peripheral part of that wonderful melding for a few short hours. Daniel had lived in the heart of that expanded consciousness and that power for over - well it had to be at least 4 days by now, maybe more, he hadn't exactly been keeping track. 

However long it had been it had been a hell of a lot longer than what Jack had been a part of. After that fleeting taste of the infinite and how much it had hurt to lose it - Jack found himself a whole lot less confident of Daniel achieving the reality of door number three. His friend had a lot of guts, but Jack found himself seriously doubting that even Daniel would be able to handle what he would have to get through if Xi'a left him. 

Didn't matter what it meant. Didn't matter what Xi'a had to give up to keep Daniel from that. Didn't matter what Jack had to give up - if it meant that Daniel had to stay here in this place with Xi'a for the rest of his life. Just so long as he was okay. 

Part of him hated himself for hoping this, but he did it all the same. Clenching his fists he looked up at his friend and hissed between clenched teeth, "Dammit, Daniel - for once in your life - think of yourself first! That's an order!" 

Okay, that last part was stupid. Even if Daniel could hear him, he wouldn't pay attention anyway. Just made him feel - better - to say it. 

Yeah, as if Daniel would actually listen. As if he really had any say in it at all. No say, maybe, but he could pray... 

Crap. The discussion was over. Oh Daniel - why? 

Daniel's arms had dropped to his sides. He had drawn himself up, his face resolute with his decision. Jack didn't need to see the vehement shaking of his head to know which way it had gone. 

The cloud about him quivered, the light within it dimming and flaring again with sorrow and the obstinate defiance of Daniel's wishes. Daniel continued to shake his head, and then he looked up, to the S'il who still hung above them, waiting. 

Jack started to move up the stairs. Daniel wasn't having any arguments. The matter had just been taken out of Xi'a's - ah - hands... 

Jack was halfway up the stairs by the time the S'il had descended upon Daniel and Xi'a, enveloping them both briefly. They gathered their own to them swiftly. By the time Jack reached the platform they had withdrawn, and were rising rapidly up into the air, out through the opening of the mountain and into the endless universe that awaited them. Daniel was alone. 

Daniel dropped as if he had been cut off at the knees, but as fast as he fell, Jack was faster. He caught his friend in strong, supporting arms, looking desperately into his eyes as he gently lowered him to the ground. Daniel's eyes were locked to the sky, gazing up and far beyond him as if still looking at the beings that were no longer there. Jack tightened his grip, trying to reach him through the physical reassurance of his presence. Daniel's arms came up swiftly, wrapping themselves around Jack's upper arm, gripping him until the pain almost made Jack cry out. 

Daniel clutched him like a drowning man, his eyes still wild and staring out into the infinite. Jack felt his heart grow cold. Supporting the weight of Daniel's upper body against his thigh he moved his free hand up to grip the back of his head, trying to turn Daniel's eyes toward him. Where the hell were those little blue guys? He could sure use some help here! 

Suddenly, something in Daniel began to respond to the pressure of Jack's fingers on his head. Slowly, Daniel turned to finally look at him. He focussed gradually, as if trying to surface from a dream that refused to let him go. Even when he finally made it, the Daniel that looked back at him was not much more than a faint shadow of what he should have been. 

His mouth worked. He was trying to speak. Jack spared a moment to hurl a glance and a shout down the stairs. 

"HELP! Help, here would be good!" 

Daniel's eyes were bleak and yet... 

"Beautiful," he said finally, in a voice as faint and faded as his consciousness. "She's so beautiful..." 

Jack tried to say something, but nothing would come out. 

Daniel's eyes were becoming clouded with pain. "She's free... that's - that's good.." 

His voice trailed away and his chest suddenly heaved in a great gasping sob as his face contorted with agony. 

"Aaahhh, It's lonely... So lonely Jack.." 

A fierce spasm of savage, protective anger ripped through Jack as he crushed Daniel to his chest. 

"Jesus, Danny I know it is, I know. Hang on, I'm here." 

"Cold. So cold.." 

Well it was about stinking time! Several of the K'Haya swarmed across the platform, bustling toward them. One of them was carrying a large piece of white cloth, not quite big enough to qualify as a blanket but it would more than do for what he wanted it for. 

Ripping it impatiently from the hand that extended it, Jack quickly bundled his shivering friend in it, spent several minutes chaffing his unresponsive arms and back and then enfolded him back in the bearhug again while he glared at the blue guys who were just standing there staring back at him. 

"Well?" He demanded. "Do something! Fix him! The same way you fixed me!" 

He hadn't even finished speaking when he knew that they had regretfully told him that they had already done all for Daniel that they could. The contact that Jack had experienced had been surface and fleeting and its effects easy to remove from the psyche. They could not 'fix Daniel's brain' or 'wipe his mind' - the problem did not reside in any part of him that was physical or that they had any power to affect. They were very very sorry, but that was the way it was. 

Once, just once, he wanted to say - fix it, make it better, and have someone say back to him - why, sure, Jack, no problem. Have it done in a jiffy! Just once. 

He really didn't think that was a lot to ask. 

Daniel was stirring beneath him, trying to say something. Jack pulled back and looked into his friend's eyes. 

He still looked really bad, but somehow, he was holding on. 

"What is it, Danny?" Jack said gently. 

Daniel looked up at him, incredibly trying to reassure him with his eyes. It was pretty weak, but it was there. 

"Take me home, Jack..." 

**Part 12**

One second Jack was kneeling on the platform on high, looking down at Daniel. 

The next he was still kneeling only now it was on the wind-swept barren rock in front of the Stargate. 

Well, at least he hadn't blacked out this time. 

Still, he was beginning to feel like a - hackey sack. Bounce me here, bounce me there. Excuse me, getting off the ride now. 

Tir was standing beside them, a slightly questioning expression on his delicate, alien features. Well, at least what Jack took to be a questioning expression... 

"Ya wanna give a guy some warning before you go doing that again?" 

Jack felt an answering trill of amusement in his thoughts. He shook his head and turned his attention back to the man in his arms. 

The bad stuff was closing in on him fast. Trying to crush his spirit, smother his soul. Still, Jack could see a stubborn, faint light that was Daniel, refusing to give in to it, trying to push it back with everything he had. Which wasn't very much at the moment. Still, that tenacious spirit that refused to surrender, succumb or back down fought to stay with him, and was looking to him for something to hold on to. 

"Jack." he panted in a voice that was much stronger than it should have been. "Can't feel - anything. Numb... help..." 

Jack gaped at him, momentarily helpless to do anything simply because he didn't know what to do. Daniel's eyes closed and he began to shake. 

_Feel. Feel. He can't feel. Needs to be able to feel..._

Jack didn't know if the inspiration came just from him or from the deeply sympathetic K'Haya dude at his side, but suddenly Jack knew exactly what he had to do. Wherever it came from he couldn't give a toss. Now that he knew what was needed he just threw all of that aside and did what he did best. Going into action. 

He unwound the cloth that was loosely swaddling Daniel and wound it tightly back around him again, pinning Daniel's arms to his sides so snugly he hoped he wasn't cutting off the circulation. Then he folded him into his arms again, squeezing him as forcefully as he could. 

He held him fiercely like that feeling the shuddering gradually subside for what seemed to be an eternity before he finally heard the ghost of a whisper. 

"Better. That's - better. Like that. Thanks. Thanks..." 

"Hey," Jack said softly back to him. "You okay enough to go home now?" 

He felt Daniel's head move against his chest in a faint nod. "Just don't let go..." 

"No way, pal. Not a chance in hell." 

However, Jack had just realized they had a HUGE problem. How he was going to make good on his promise to take Daniel home. It seemed that they had sashayed through the Stargate without thinking to pick up a signal device. 

Attention to detail. He was really going to have to work on that one. 

However, it seemed as if someone had thought of everything. Someone who apparently was going back with them to see what last minute assistance he could render to Daniel and also to be of service in the capacity of providing an - explanation for a few things. Possibly maybe even helping to keep a certain Colonel from spending the rest of his life doing the off off off Broadway version of "Jailhouse Rock." 

Just as well, couldn't hold a tune in a bucket. 

The Stargate was active, Tir had already told him, via global information insert, that the iris had been disabled so they weren't going to get creamed upon arrival, always a condition to be avoided at all costs, and they weren't going to get shot at by their own guys when they got there. Also not on the top of his list of favorite things to do in an afternoon. So all that was left to do now was the shuffling off to Buffalo bit. 

He started to pick Daniel up only to feel the vigorous shake of his friend's head vehemently protesting his intention. Unbelievable. Daniel wanted to walk back. He wanted to walk. Definitely not inclined to argue with what he considered to be a very good sign, Jack helped his friend to his feet, keeping his arms wrapped around him as firmly as he could in order to maintain the constant pressure that seemed to be helping. Leaning heavily on his rock solid support but definitely standing and definitely ambulatory, Daniel Jackson walked back through the Stargate, his friend on one side of him and the little K'Haya Tir on the other. 

There were a lot of very solemn faces looking at them on the other side. Jack did a quick visual reconnaissance and was extremely relieved to see that Maybourne was not one of them. That would have been way too much to have to deal with at the moment. 

The trip through the gate had been a bit too much for Daniel; his legs were buckling and he was beginning to sag. Jack hurried to bolster him as Sam, Teal'c and Dr Frasier arrived to lend a hand. 

"Daniel," Sam said softly, her voice dangerously fragile with emotion. At the sound of it he turned his head toward her, his eyes awash with misery and the desperate appeal for it to be taken away. Daniel leaned toward her as she added her embrace to the one that already enveloped him, allowing his head to find a haven in the comfort of her shoulder. She looked down at him a moment, as if trying to comprehend the depths of his anguish, then cast deeply troubled eyes at the man beside him. Although she didn't say a word, the question she asked Jack was quite plain to him. 

_What's happened to him? What's wrong?_

Janet was there as well, trying to pull Jack a little to the side in preparation for putting Daniel on the stretcher that was being brought up the ramp. All ready for them. Good. It pays to call ahead. 

As soon as he understood what she meant to do Daniel began to try to violently pull away from her, shaking his head and shrinking back towards Jack. "No - No - Jack..." The panic in his voice was terrifying and deeply disturbing. 

"Colonel - what's wrong -" Janet started to say. Jack shot her a 'I'll-tell-you-when-I-get-a-minute' glare and looked around for their guest, who was already right there under his nose. 

Maybe he couldn't 'fix' Daniel, but as Jack was desperately hoping, it appeared he could help. As Tir reached up and started patting the distressed man gently on his cloth-covered arm he trained the full measure of his wide-eyed, healing stare upon Daniel. 

It only took a few seconds and Daniel's panic lessened and then ceased. His head began to nod, his legs slump. In less than 15 seconds he was deeply asleep and between them Jack and Sam were able to quickly and efficiently lower him to the waiting stretcher. 

The corpsmen picked it up and were about to walk back down the ramp when Tir put up his little blue hand. He focussed those eyes on the Doctor and Jack could not help but feel a smile creep over him as he watched her eyes widen in shock and wonder, and then turn and focus on him with profound concern as she understood what Tir had just 'told' her. 

Oh, this guy was going to make the debrief a snap. Wonder if he would consider a career in the SGC... 

He also was doing a fair job of running interference for him. The General had more than a slightly bemused expression on his face as Tir took his hand and started to lead him out of the embarkation room. They made a really sweet couple. The man from Texas and Little Blue Boy. Jack would have killed for a camera. 

"Uh - I'll be right with you, Sir," Jack called after him. Hammond made no sign that he had heard him or even particularly cared what he did. Sweet. 

Oh man, he definitely had to get Tir to show him how he did that before he left... 

Motioning for Sam and Teal'c to follow him, he hurried to make tracks after the men who were bearing Daniel away. 

As if he could have stopped those two from following. 

As if he even needed to ask. 

He tried to bring them up to speed as tersely as possible while they made the trip to the infirmary. By the time they got there they hadn't heard the whole thing, but they had heard more than enough to put them well into the picture. 

They transferred Daniel to a gurney. He continued to slumber peacefully, completely oblivious to what was being done to him. Jack felt a stab of panic seize him as Janet started to remove the covering that encased him, and before he realized what he was doing he put his hand on her arm to stop her. 

She stopped, and flashed him an understanding look. "It's all right, Colonel," she said. "I know. Tir told me that the application of constant, steady pressure helps him. That's very interesting. It's a technique used quite successfully to calm autistic children and help them become gradually desensitized to physical stimulation. It might be instructive to run some brain scans targeting the areas of the brain - " 

"Doctor!" Jack snapped only a little bit, feeling in that moment an absolute paragon of restraint. "Just - do what you have to do quickly and then make sure that he is wrapped up again. I don't want him to wake up - " Jack's voice broke off and he could not finish the sentence. 

Janet nodded and looked away. "Yes, Colonel. Tir told me that Daniel will not wake up until he comes back and returns him to his natural state of sleep. We can check him out and get him settled again without having to worry about upsetting him." 

"All the same, be quick about it, Doc. Okay? Even though he is asleep I don't want him to have to go through anything that is not absolutely necessary. I think he's been through more than enough already." 

"Yes Sir. I'll take good care of him, Colonel." 

Jack smiled at her and meant it. "I know you will, Doc." 

He spared another moment to look to Sam and Teal'c. She beat him to the punch. 

"Don't even have to say it, Sir," she said with a tight smile, her comment echoed by a solemn nod of the man who stood behind her. 

Of course he didn't. What had he been thinking? Acknowledging their loyalty to their friend with a curt nod of his head he cast one final look at Daniel and then made himself walk out of the room to join Tir and the General. 

It seemed that Hammond had been getting along rather famously with their guest. Tir appeared to be having an equally good time. The pair was positively merry when Jack joined them. Evidently he had scarcely been missed or required. 

Wasn't really quite sure how he felt about that... Oh man, he needed to get some sleep or something. Focus, Jack. 

Jack sat himself down with Laurel and Hardy and the scientific supporting players and immediately felt himself drawn into an amazing story. He'd only gotten part of it back there during his first encounter with Tir. There was more. A lot more. 

The K'Harra/K'Haya and the tree-like beings they were allied with, the GI were the two forms of sentient life on their world. Each GI was a support system for a collective of entities such as Xi'a, the first aspect of an life form whose life span would take it through three stages of the manifestation of life. 

As part of the GI they were largely members of the vegetative kingdom. Jack couldn't follow all of it - he was no scientist and he suspected the General couldn't either, but it's not like either one of them was going to admit that fact to the other. That's what the scientific guys were here for. 

When they were ready to enter the next phase of their development they selected a compatible host from those of the K'Harra that were presented to them for that purpose. Sometime it took a long time and a lot of K'Harra to get the right combination, but when it clicked the podling flew the nest, joined with their new support system and became a fully fledged member of the animal kingdom in the a'tah stage of their being. This happy state of affairs continued until they were ready to make the next transition. To transcend matter entirely, and become pure energy as one of the S'il. The host was similarly transformed, left with the gift of profound psychic abilities and he or she then became K'Haya and joined the ranks of the faithful who tended the bower and saw to the needs of the GI. 

All in all it was a pretty satisfying relationship for everyone concerned. It had been that way for an awfully long time. And it had been that way until the despoiler had come to call. 

Very infrequently travelers came through the Stargate. The K'Haya had never made any specific effort to keep their existence a secret - there had never been any need to. When the odd traveler did come through the gate they were welcomed by the K'Harra, taken to the city on the other side of the mountain and even occasionally allowed to visit the sanctuary. Sometimes they came out of curiosity, out of need, but whatever the reason, when they came, they were welcomed. 

Then one day a man came into the midst of the K'Harra who literally ripped the life of the gentle people asunder. He came as a false friend, asking many questions, seeking to be trusted, with a secret place in his mind where the K'Haya could not go. It did not trouble them; they had no reason to fear or to wonder what he might possibly have to hide from them, but they were soon to find out. 

As soon as he had gained their confidence and access to the bower he used a device that created a noise that hurt their minds, rendering them incapacitated and unable to prevent him from taking Xi'a and making his escape with one of their children. Their grief had been terrible and the K'Harra and many of the races who knew of them and were friends to them had looked for her for a very long time. But they had never been able to find her. There had been no clues to follow, no trace of her for hundreds of years. Until Daniel Jackson somehow had heard her cries for help, and had offered himself up willingly to take her home. 

Jack started. He hadn't known that. Hadn't realized. He thought Daniel had just stumbled on her, opened the box like he wasn't supposed to like he was always doing and gotten himself snagged for his pains. 

But it hadn't been that way at all. It hadn't been an accident. He hadn't been forced. Or trapped or sucked into it. He had * known * - what was going to happen. What it meant. What might happen to him as a result. And he went and did it anyway. 

As soon as that boy was in any sort of condition to get yelled at Jack resolved he was going to sit him down and have a very serious discussion with him about talking to him first before he decided to bring home any more strays. 

That was, if Jack decided to let him live long enough for it ever to possibly come up again... 

The rest of it he pretty much knew. Not that it took all that long for the General to get the rest of the story. As they started covering the ground from 'Daniel wakes up onward' Hammond started looking at him with a very pensive expression on his face. Jack wasn't sure just how much messing Xi'a had done with everybody's heads before he and the twins had decamped, but Hammond appeared to be connecting a few dots right before his eyes and there was a very real possibility that there might be a few rough spots to be smoothed over in the days to come. Oh Lordy, maybe more than a few rough spots. He was not liking that look Hammond was hurling at him one bit. 

But it seemed that Tir had wrapped it up, and to Hammond's interrogative 'did-he-have-any-more-to-add-to-this' look Jack shrugged and muttered something like "I dunno, sounds as if he pretty much covered it." 

Then to his complete amazement the General gave out with an enormous grin, dismissed the rest of the scientific personnel attending the briefing and then got to his feet while saying in a jovial, expansive voice, "Well Colonel, that's just fine! What say we all go down now to the infirmary so that our good friend here can check on Dr Jackson before he has to go home." 

Tir turned his large yellow eyes briefly upon Jack before looking back at the General, putting his little hand into Hammond's, and walking placidly by his side as they left the briefing room. Jack watched them go, needing to pick his lower jaw up off the floor before he was able to follow them. He couldn't believe what he had just seen. 

The little bugger had WINKED at him. He wondered if trying to kiss an alien was against SOP's. 

When they arrived in the infirmary Daniel was lying in one of the beds, tightly cocooned in a sheet, still very much asleep. He had jammed himself up against the raised bed rail. Sam was holding up the wall beside the bed and Teal'c - well, Teal'c was sitting on a chair beside the bed, one large hand pressed firmly against Daniel's back. 

As soon as she saw him, Sam waved him over. "Colonel," she said. "Come over here and look at this. This is really amazing." Tir left Hammond and padded up to the bedside beside him as Jack moved to Daniel's side. 

"Go on, Teal'c," she prodded. "Show him." 

The Jaffa gracefully arched an eyebrow at her, looked up at Jack and then slowly lifted his hand away from Daniel's back. 

Almost the same instant he broke contact Daniel started to react. He began to move fretfully, stirring fitfully as gentle signs of distress began to play across his sleeping features. Teal'c kept his hand above the obviously disturbed man for a few seconds more, and then he carefully, deliberately replaced it, renewing the contact and the pressure. Daniel stopped moving instantly, settling back into his previously placid state. 

"Holy..." Jack heard himself saying. 

"He was beginning to become disturbed as the Doctor was finishing her tests," Teal'c supplied. When I touched him, he became calm. For some reason he seems to find the contact reassuring." 

"I shouldn't wonder," Jack said as he patted the Jaffa's shoulder in a small gesture of his own gratitude. "Thanks." 

He turned back to Janet to hear what she had to say, leaving his other teammates with Tir while the little K'Haya gave Daniel the once-over for the last time. 

"Physiologically, Daniel checks out just fine," Janet began, making her report to both Jack and the General. All scans are normal, there doesn't appear to be any brain damage or any other physiological damage. He's perfectly healthy, physically perfectly fine. Now as to the psychological trauma - I'm afraid that there's nothing for that but time. It's up to Daniel now." 

"So what happens now?" Jack asked. 

"Well, I would like to keep him here for a couple of days for observation, but to be honest with you, there's really not a lot we can do for him here. He needs time, understanding and a lot of help from his friends if he is going to make it through this. Maybe you should take him home." 

**Epilogue**

Jack took another sip of coffee as he stood by the sliding glass doors that gave out the deck beyond, looking at the man who was sitting on the steps outside, taking the morning air. 

No big deal. People did it every day. People did simple, ordinary everyday stuff like this all the time, never giving a moment's thoughts to how significant even the simplest of moments could be. 

Jack was looking at a man who was sitting outside. Alone. On his own. For the first time in almost a month. And the blessed mundane-ness of what Daniel was doing made Jack want to fall to his knees and weep for sheer joy. 

The preceding march of days that they had all just come through was not an experience that Jack had any wish to ever repeat. They had been dark, desperate and deeply fearful times, and the ordeal had not been lessened by the assurances of the diminutive K'Haya gentleman who had attempted to set his mind somewhat at ease before going home. 

He almost hadn't made it. Jack felt a wry smile of remembrance crease his face as he thought about the General and Tir. Hammond had insisted on giving the little guy a full tour of the facility, the whole Red Carpet VIP bells and whistles ring ding deal. Which, to his credit, Tir had submitted to like a really good sport. Hammond had been so taken with the little dude that he was making noises about taking him home for dinner and it was starting to get a little weird then, so Jack had stepped in and rescued him saying they were expecting him back home and the General had just smiled and said 'Okay' and walked away. 

Jack found himself profoundly grateful that the phrase 'playing with somebody's head' now only meant - externally... 

It had been hard to say good-bye to Tir. Jack hadn't realized how much he had been leaning on the little guy's ability to help out with Daniel. And how much it scared him to have to try and help his friend without him. Tir had pulled him down, wrapped those teeny weenie doll arms around his neck and sent a whole big bunch of comforting confidence and reassurance his way. Tir told him not to worry. Daniel was strong and brave, and he had a lot to live for. A lot to come back for. Damned right there. 

Then there was the stuff he was still thinking about. The stuff about Tir not being so sure that being one with Xi'a had not left its mark on Daniel somehow after all. That maybe something of the gifts he had been meant to have - had remained. 

Well, seeing what he was seeing now, knowing where Daniel had been and how he had gotten to where he was now in such a short period of time, Jack wasn't just so sure that maybe Tir had been right. 

Jack wondered if he should tell Daniel about the invitation. That they both were more than welcome to return to the bower whenever they needed to. Both were more than welcome to be there, the next time Xi'a and the S'il - came home. Tir would say only that Daniel would know when that was. The rest was up to them. 

It had been nice to have something good to think about while for so long there had been only so much more to be scared about. On the third day Janet had released Daniel, and SG1 had been granted an indefinite leave of absence and taken their stricken comrade home. The four of them had made Jack's place the official base of operations, and for the past month he had had two very dedicated and diligent housemates on site practically twenty-four hours a day to help him comfort and tend to the third. 

The first week plus some had been the worst. Daniel had been little more than a husk barely animated by the man who lived within. Connected to them by the slenderest of threads, his awareness of his surrounding signified by the most tenuous occasional responses, Daniel was only 'there' enough to be able to marginally respond to the most basic bodily requirements. And even in that, he could not bear to be alone. 

That is what Jack found the most terrifying. For someone who was as independent, as self-contained, as proud as the Daniel he had always known had been , to see him so completely unable to care about himself or to be by himself was painful and frightening. When they had first brought him back here, he had out and out freaked at any attempt to install him in the spare room. Wasn't having any part of that. He only calmed down when they put him on the couch and that was pretty much where he had stayed, wrapped mummy-like in a sheet, his body jammed face first into the back of the couch as far in as he could cram it. 

He only stirred from that position when he absolutely had to. Periodically allowed largely unsuccessful attempts to feed him, which he submitted to with passive indifference. Was spectacularly unperplexed by the technicalities of daily ablutions and the periodic rotation of clothing and sheeting that took place with his negligible participation. Fortunately there were a few personal requirements he seemed to be aware enough to be able to perform for himself, but he still couldn't be alone when he did it. 

The really odd thing was that for someone who spent so much time lying prone staring at the back of a couch, you would have thought that he would have slept more. Even wrapped as he was in his covering and the concern of the people around him, it was hard to get him to stop shaking long enough to settle. Jack didn't know how many hours he had spent with the man shivering in his arms, clamped in a grip that Jack held fiercely until his limbs ached to the bone with it, while Daniel quaked soundlessly and stared. 

As it turned out, the only one who could get him to stop shaking and sleep - was Teal'c. As soon as the Jaffa placed that big, black hand on the small of his back, Daniel calmed right down. It was the damnedest thing that Jack had ever seen. Even though they had already observed this phenomenon in the infirmary, it had taken an additional two nerve-wracking and anxious days to make the connection again. Sometimes the most obvious solutions are the hardest to see. 

However, once they had the key, something quickly evolved that was really amazing to behold. When it came to his single-minded determination to be of service, Teal'c brought a whole new dimension to the term when it was applied to the lengths he was prepared to go to help Daniel. Jack was fully willing to credit the Jaffa for being one of the most important factors in Daniel's recovery. Can't argue with the truth. 

It was not actually all that hard to figure out why that was. Even though it sounded like a gross over-simplification, essentially Daniel was - in shock. However, it was the biggest, baddest version of that condition that anyone had ever been subjected to. He was trying to fight his way through a million miles and layers of paralyzing numbness and pain, and it was a farther distance than he could go on his own strength. What he needed was something to grab onto to pull himself up with, something to punch its way through the barrier from the other side and meet him halfway. That is just what he got. The undeniable reality and the pure power of being that was Teal'c. 

The Jaffa was just so strong, just so vital, so undeniably solid, reliable and tangible that he simply could not be denied. Especially when he put all of his heart and soul into impelling the full force of everything he was right at Daniel. 

It wasn't long before Teal'c had virtually taken over every personal ministration that Jack and Sam had been seeing to on Daniel's behalf. Their fallen friend had gotten himself one long, large black shadow that never seemed to get tired and wasn't going anywhere for nothing no how. 

Jack was relieved to see it happen. Immensely relieved that Sam and Teal'c were here to help, because he felt himself rapidly reaching the stage when he - couldn't - anymore. Not that he wouldn't have gone to hell and back several times over for his friend, but he was beginning to discover, as the first week turned into the second, that he was finding it harder and harder to be with Daniel. To see him like that. Jack's mind was too full of the memories of that other Daniel only he had seen; the brilliant godling who had laughed and raced and sparkled, been loved by a creature of the stars and who had filled his mind and body with fire and joy and the blessedness of being. To see him now like this, crumpled, shattered and empty was more than Jack could bear. It very nearly, literally - broke his heart. 

And then, just when he thought he could not stand another minute of it, just when he thought he had to run, to leave, do anything just go anywhere where he did not have to see it anymore, he heard Daniel call his name. 

Just like that, as if he was merely awakening from an overlong sleep, Daniel called to him as he struggled to turn around and sit up. He wasn't having much luck - being all wrapped up the way he was. So Jack went to him, and let him out. 

It got better after that. Little by little, like beads of water dripping from the spigot of a soul suspended, slowly refilling the vessel, drop by precious drop. Little by little, Daniel came back. 

It was like watching him literally being reborn. Like watching someone come into the world again for the first time. He was confused, he was bewildered, and he didn't have a clue. That which was everyday and commonplace was as mysterious to Daniel as the arcane scratches and scribbles which he once read with such ease were to Jack. That was when the long hours of talking began. The showing, the explaining, the discussing, the just-plain-chewing-the-fat with Daniel nestled in their midst, an expression of deep concentration on his face as he struggled to understand them. 

He turned more and more to Sam then, as she became the one who would sit with him and hold him, as she talked tirelessly to him about anything and everything. Daniel appeared to really be taken with the sound of her voice and he seemed to understand more of what she said to him than anyone else. Jack and Teal'c just looked at each other and smiled a lot, while they had their own discussions over exactly who was going to wash and who was going to dry. 

Daniel was with them again, even though he was still a long way from being what he was. He was far more responsive, alert and aware, but he still needed an enormous amount of physical contact and reassurance and constant company. But as long as they all were there and he was never alone, he continued to get better. 

And now, there he was. Sitting outside. By himself. Almost himself. The mental confusion had started to really clear two days ago. For the first time in ages Daniel had looked at him and Jack had known that his friend truly knew who he was. He still wasn't saying a lot. Daniel had barely made a sound through the whole of his ordeal. Jack smiled to himself at that. How many times in the past when he had been the target of many the tangled torrent of exuberant but confusing verbosity had he wished that Daniel would just shut up. Be careful what you wish for? 

Well he certainly wasn't going to say that he was so relieved to hear him talking again that he would never ever tell him to shut up. Yeah, right! With all the expositional asides Daniel could take a half an hour to explain how to turn on a light switch. He'd give himself about a week of the kid's babbling once he got back up to speed again and Jack knew damned well odds were he'd call him on it.. Hey, we are what we are. 

Daniel turned back suddenly, to see him standing there looking at him. Jack made as if to back away, feeling a little embarrassed at being caught peeking. He didn't want Daniel to think he thought he needed a keeper. 

Daniel flashed him a slight smile. Not nearly as bright or as brilliant as the ones who used to live on his face before this, but it would more than do. He waved at Jack, asking him to come out and join him. Jack shrugged, put down his coffee cup and complied. 

Without even thinking about it, as it had become such a deeply ingrained habit he automatically held out his arm as he settled himself behind his friend, fully expecting Daniel to immediately slip under it. Daniel didn't move. 

"It's all right, Jack," he began, without looking at him. "You don't have to do that anymore. I'm - okay now." 

Yup. Daniel was back. 

"I - appreciate what you and the others have done for me," he continued, still staring straight ahead. " It couldn't have been easy. I'm sorry I was such a burden." 

Crap. Definitely all the way back. Guilt module located and fully engaged. Here we go. 

Jack held his arm back out and made an encouraging motion with his head. "Ah, heck with that. You're going to go all-independent on me soon so I 'm not going to get a chance to do this much more. Tell you the truth, I'm gonna miss it. Humor an old man. C'mere." 

Daniel shot him a shy, sidelong glance as he considered what Jack had just said for a minute. Then with an expression that clearly conveyed that he wasn't nearly as ready to get as standoffish as he had been letting on, he emitted a small sigh and shifted into the man beside him. Jack settled his arm firmly around his shoulders and pulled him in tight. 

He had been telling the truth. This wouldn't happen like this ever again. He certainly hoped to God not. Not for the reason that it had happened, anyway. Daniel would be himself again, and he would no longer need any of them to be what they had been for him during the time he had been lost to himself. Which is the way it should be. But that didn't mean that Jack still wouldn't miss being needed - in quite this way. 

Make the most of what you've got while you've got it. For nothing lasts forever. And guess who had taught him that one.... 

"Janet's pleased with your progress. She says if you feel up to it, you can go back on light duty in another week." 

Daniel sighed again. "Don't even want to think about what must be piled up on my desk by now." 

"Well, you know how it is when you go on vacation. Bureaucracy waits for no man. Or anthropologist." 

"Archaeologist." 

"What?" 

"That's archaeologist. I'm an archaeologist." 

"Oh. Right. Sorry." 

" Don't worry about it. Happens all the time. It'll be good to see the place again." 

"You've been missed. An awful lot of people can hardly wait to see you." 

"Yeah? That's nice. Wouldn't mind seeing a few of them myself. Not that you three haven't been really great and all but -" 

"Sure, sure," Jack teased. "You've had just about enough of same old ugly faces -" 

"Well, I wouldn't put it quite THAT way - " Daniel protested. 

Jack laughed again and gave Daniel's arm a squeeze. "Relax, just kidding." 

They lapsed into an easy silence and just sat that way for a time. Jack very much wanted to break it, but he did not know if it was yet the time to question Daniel about what he most wanted to know. 

The unexpected sound of Daniel's voice startled him. 

"Go ahead, Jack. It's all right. I don't mind talking about it." 

Damn! How does he DO that! 

"Why? Why did you do it, Danny?" 

"Do you mean why did I let her take me? Or why didn't I take her?" 

"Uh - both." 

Daniel was silent for a time, considering his answer. "They're actually kinda one and the same. I had no choice." 

Jack looked at him, the need to understand heavy on his face. 

"What does that mean, Danny, of course you had a choice! You could have turned around and walked away. You could have let her stay with you and saved yourself a lot of pain. Those were choices too, and they were just as valid as the ones you made." 

"If you saw a man bleeding to death in the street - could you walk right by him and do nothing?" 

"Of course not - but that's not the same thing!" 

"Yes it is." 

"No it isn't! Stopping some bleeding isn't going to run me the risk of getting myself - lobotomized." 

"So, you're saying that it's only okay to help someone if there is no personal risk involved. If it's too much trouble we should just look the other way and move on." 

Jack closed his eyes and sighed. Crap. Hoist on his own petard. 

"I think I liked you better when you were brain-dead," he grumbled. "Sure was a hell of a lot easier to win an argument." 

"I know," Daniel replied softly. "You might not like it, but I just couldn't turn away. It's just the way I am, Jack. She - needed help. I was there. That's all there was to it. I'm nobody special. It was nothing special. No big deal. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time to be able to help. It was nothing anyone else wouldn't have done." 

"Oh Danny, believe me. There is no one else like you." 

"Whatever that means," he murmured, evading the compliment he did not feel comfortable acknowledging. "I sent her away - for the same reason. I brought her home to set her free. To help her become what she was. It would have made no sense to hold her back from that. Simply to spare myself a little pain." 

"A LITTLE pain!" The volume at which the remark came out surprised even him. "Danny, you were a freaking vegetable for crying out loud! You came THIS close to being eligible for planting, fertilizing and watering for the rest of your life! Now it's fine to sit there and spout principles but if you hadn't of made it back, would helping Xi'a really have been worth - THAT?" 

Daniel didn't answer him for a long time. He laid his head on Jack's shoulder as if the effort of talking had suddenly become too much for him. Or if what Jack had just said to him had been too painful to respond to. 

Jack kicked himself upside the head several times. When was he EVER going to learn to throttle back a bit when it came to trying to talk to this kid? He just made him so CRAZY sometimes... 

"Jesus, Danny, I'm sorry. Didn't mean to go off on you like that. It - just scares me sometimes. Scares me a lot. The things you do. Sometimes I wish you wouldn't care so damned much about everything and everyone and then maybe - you wouldn't scare me. But then you wouldn't be you. Can't win for losing." 

"If you had to do it over again, would you take it all back?" The sudden, unexpected return of Daniel's voice started him. 

"Danny?" Jack wasn't sure he liked the direction in which this conversation was heading. 

"If someone said to you - I can fix it so you and Daniel Jackson would never meet, would you do it?" 

"What kind of a question is that?" Jack could feel righteous indignation coming out of his pores. "Don't be stupid, of course not!" 

"I dunno," Daniel continued softly. "You might want to think that one over a little more. "Seems to me you might be a whole lot happier if you just - walked on by. Certainly would spare yourself a lot of pain. No worries, no more fear. Your life would be a lot more simple, you'd have all the control you need. You'd be safer - " 

"And a whole lot of empty," Jack finished gravely. He was getting it. Safe was not necessarily a good thing. If the price for it was everything that made life worth living. 

"Okay," Jack conceded. "All things considered I would rather know you and live everything that could possibly happen because I do rather than never have known you at all." 

"That's how I feel about Xi'a. " As he continued to speak, Daniel's voice took on a hushed, rapt quality. "The things she showed me, the things she enabled me to do and share with her, knowing that that beautiful, amazing creature is out there somewhere - free - I wouldn't take it back. Not one minute of it. Not even to spare myself one moment of what came next. If pain is sometimes the price for living, Jack, than sometimes the price is more than worth it. I'll take living over playing it safe every time." 

"Me too!" Jack slapped his thigh for emphasis. 

"Now you're making fun of me," Daniel smiled. 

"Just a little," Jack grinned. "Kind of expected, isn't it? Sorta becoming my mission in life." 

"What, to be my tormenter?" 

"I was thinking more along the lines of - hot air release valve." 

Daniel sighed, shook his head and said nothing for a time. Jack felt slightly disappointed. He had been hoping to get a little bit of a rise out of his friend. Guess he was a little rusty. If at first you don't succeed... 

"I knew you were there with me,' Daniel said suddenly, in a small, quiet voice. "I could see you, hear you. Feel what you were feeling. I just wasn't strong enough - to reach you. I tried. I'm sorry." 

"It's okay." Jack replied. "I'm -working on it. What we just talked about is going to help a lot. Anyway, it's really good to have you back." 

"Feels pretty good to have me back, too." 

They lapsed into another small silence. Jack shuffled his feet, found a fascinating patch of his sleeve to contemplate, looked up at the sky, fidgeted a bit more. 

"Sooo," he finally came out with it. "What else do you remember?" 

He couldn't see the grin on Daniel's face but he could feel it. 

"Everything." 

"I see." He let that sit for a couple seconds more. He could feel Daniel's shoulders beginning to shake beneath his arm. Nothing to cause him any alarm. Quite the opposite, as a matter of fact. 

"So was it good for you?" 

Daniel choked back what would have been a fairly impressive guffaw if he had let it go. As it was, his reply wasn't as throw away as he was going for. 

"I never kiss and tell." 

He barely got the last syllable out and he was laughing. Hard and loud, great peals of his chesty, honest laughter. 

It was possibly the most beautiful sound Jack had ever heard, and it brought the other denizens of the house running, their own delight at hearing it plain on their faces. 

"Hey!" Sam's voice was full of mock effrontery. "What's going on out here? No fair starting without us!" 

Daniel was still laughing so hard he couldn't speak, so he just put his arm around her to greet her as she sat down on his other side. 

Teal'c followed her down the stairs, and then settled himself on the step below them, where he turned and surveyed the trio on the step above him with grave approval. 

"DanielJackson, you appear to be well. Does this mean you will be cutting the meat into little pieces by yourself now?" 

Now being held up by the two people on each side of him, Daniel just looked at him. He was quite helpless with laughter. Sam leaned forward making an obvious show of 'whispering' something to Teal'c behind her raised hand. 

"It's worse than that. The Colonel doesn't get to play 'open up door so we can fly the little airplane into the hangar' with the Lucky Charms anymore." 

"Hey! Jack said indignantly. "No one was supposed to SEE that..." 

Daniel was laughing so hard tears were sliding down his cheeks. He also appeared to be in serious immediate danger of hyperventilating. 

While Sam and Teal'c tried to encourage him to calm down and start breathing again Jack let the glow that was coming from all of them wrap around him. They had Daniel back. They were whole again. It was going to be all right. 

He really did mean what he had said to Daniel earlier. About working on it. About wanting to have what was right here and now more than being afraid of what not having any of it some day would mean. But he didn't have to worry about that now. It was here. Everything was here. Everything and every one that made every day of his life worth living. Right here sitting around him and the one who always seemed to know how to be it the best. 

Tomorrow would take care of itself soon enough. This was all he wanted, and where he wanted to be. 

Jack wrapped his fingers just a little more firmly around Daniel's arm and took it on home. 

Termination 

By PhoenixE   


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>   
> © January 12, 2000 The characters mentioned in this story are the property of Showtime and Gekko Film Corp.  
> The Stargate, SG-I, the Goa’uld and all other characters  
> who have appeared in the series STARGATE SG-1 together with the names,   
> titles and backstory are the sole copyright property of MGM-UA Worldwide Television,   
> Gekko Film Corp, Glassner/Wright Double Secret Productions and Stargate SG-I Prod. Ltd.   
> Partnership.  
> This fanfic is not intended as an infringement upon those rights and   
> solely meant for entertainment.   
> All other characters, the story idea and the story itself   
> are the sole property of the author.   
> 

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##### This story is dedicated to my friend David, who had emailed me a few ideas when I first approached him with the idea. "How about conspiracies?" he said. "I like conspiracies." For that, I dedicated this to him, who's obviously watched too much X-Files for his own good.

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